Blue and Orange
by Hyped
Summary: Essentially kidnapped against his will, Killua has no choice but to aid the League of Villains if he ever wishes to return home. Meanwhile, Gon wakes up on the streets of Tokyo and is taken in by heroes who are fascinated and a little wary of the boy who claims to not have a quirk despite his physical prowess that says otherwise.
1. Chapter I

**MORALITY (n)**

 **principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior; a particular system of values and principles of conduct, especially ones held by a specified person or society**

CHAPTER I

Seated in the center of a dark room appearing to be extrinsically attached to the bastardization of the throne he sat upon, All for One let out a barely audible sigh. He mentally recounted all the assets Shigaraki managed to waste away in his impulsive attack on UA high school. The small time villains, mere pawns, were of little consequence and it would be easy enough to acquire an entire army of them; disillusioned by society, they were easy to sway to the League.

The loss of the nomu, however, was much more consequential. Yes, there were many others laying in wait, but their strength was roughly the same as the one All Might had just demolished. If he could defeat one, he could defeat them all essentially. A small knot of rage began to writhe within All for One's insides at the thought. He had overestimated how quickly his bitter enemy was losing his power. The blonde man had began to exhibit the subtle signs of the decline of One for All in his body, invisible to all but the few who understand his quirk. Having seen generations of the quirk from its acquisition to the holder's death, All for One intimately understood the process likely more than the mortals who were bequeathed its power. He had been sure that his estimations were correct, but unfortunately he was proven wrong.

The one thing he was always wont to underestimate was foolish heroism; "heroes" give more than they are physically capable of in order to defeat a singularity. It mattered little in the grand scheme of things, the scarred man mused, as this "heroic" act wrought deterioration of the body and mind. All Might's decline, which was previously progressing at a modest pace, was now going to plummet. Despite the villain's faith in his prediction, he was wise enough to know that All Might would go out fighting and could still pose a threat to the League of Villains and their leader's goals.

This train of thought led him to his current predicament. All for One was not confident that the manpower and assets he currently controlled were enough to defeat All Might and the other heroes. He was sure of it, actually. He likely did not have enough time to develop the nomus into unstoppable killing machines, Shigaraki and his allies were still inexperienced and naïve, and the hero students clearly showed enough promise to surpass the professionals within a relatively short amount of time. All for One's old allies were dead, massacred by the heroes years ago. Current villains were disorganized and fearful. There was nobody in this world that he would be able to recruit to his cause that would make a significant difference in the short term. But what about a different world?

Interdimensional quirks were beyond rare, but the scarred man had managed to acquire one from an old man many decades ago after earning (and betraying) his trust. All for One had made a few attempts at utilizing the quirk before, but for the most part he had only managed to summon plants or items that paralleled his world's own. The original user required knowledge of the world he was taking from in order for his quirk to be successful. Unfortunately, the man's knowledge was not transferred to the villain, and the man chose to kill himself rather than provide All for One with his knowledge after he realized how much destruction his quirk could wreak on the world.

It was not until recently that the scarred villain managed to obtain an item that would connect him to another world. It was a small piece of plastic, an identification card with writing in an almost pictographic language foreign to this world. He was told by the seller that it was of incomparable value in the world it was from, only issued to the elite. There was, of course, a chance that the shrewd seller was lying, but it would be a simple matter for an assassin to be sent to torture and kill the man should that be the case.

Now that he thought about it, a powerful assassin would be incredibly valuable to have for the near future. Easily able to take down those who opposed the League, as well as hold over the heads of those who commit to the villain group's cause and consider stepping out of line or defecting. All for One's mouth twisted itself into a sinister grin. Yes, that would be excellent. It would also be nice to have something that could rival All Might head on, but that kind of power was dangerous as the head villain may not be able to control it. However, the risk was worth it; All for One could always send it back to where it came from should the worst come to pass.

Well, that settled it. Reaching deep within the recesses of his mind to locate the interdimensional quirk, All for One quickly materialized the card into his hand. Latching onto the unfamiliar feeling of the quirk, he concentrated on the physical feeling of the worn plastic and the characteristics that he wished to materialize in front of him. A sudden migraine and a pull in his chest suddenly struck him, and taken by surprise, he lost his concentration for a fraction of a second. The feeling vanished and he immediately felt drained of his energy as the process was complete. He expected for there to be some kind of flashy entrance or at least a sound, but there was nothing. The villain frowned. He could feel that he had succeeded in bringing _something_ to this world, but where the hell was it? He continued pondering for a few minutes, growing slightly concerned that his efforts would be for naught if he had just dropped something from another world into a desert or the ocean, but soon enough the screen in front of his throne came to life and Shigaraki's body appeared.

"Sensei," the thin man called out. "Did you send me a child?"

All for One was taken aback by the question. He had done no such thing, but it was virtually impossible for a child to find and impenetrate the League's hideout. Unless…

"Oh," the head villain breathed out quietly. It must have been one of the otherworldly beings. Perhaps it just appeared childlike? After all, he summoned something powerful, he was confidently aware of that. But he could not show any sort of uncertainty to his young, impressionable disciple, so he simply said, "Yes, it is a being I have summoned from another world for our use. It is powerful and will serve us well."

Shigaraki was taken aback by his master's words, and hesitated a second too long before responding, "Even though I have just embarrassed the League? You have enough faith in me to send me another powerful pawn?" The messy haired man was in awe, and All for One could almost physically feel the man's devotion to him swelling.

"That is precisely why I have given you such a gift. You have suffered defeat at the hands of our mortal enemy, but you will learn from that experience. Use this one wisely."

Shigaraki bowed low, an unusual act for him, and wholeheartedly exclaimed, "Thank you, sensei!"

All for One gave a small nod of acknowledgement and instructed, "Test its abilities and put it to use. We cannot become complacent." Without waiting for a response, he shut off the connection and was once again left in the dark alone. That accounted for one of the beings, but he couldn't help but wonder what happened to the other. Hopefully it would turn up soon.

What All for One didn't account for was that the second summon would land in the middle of Tokyo right in the heart of the heroes.

* * *

Gon woke with a start and immediately felt his senses overwhelmed by unfamiliar sensations. The ground he lay upon was cold and hard, and the air was stale with exhaust and the stench of rotting food, excrement, and body odor. The noise pollution - loud voices, clanging, and rushing footsteps - that assaulted his senses and the towering buildings currently shadowing the sun from his view affirmed that he was in a city, though he had no idea how he had arrived. The last thing he remembered was relaxing on the bank of the water on Whale Island, a stark contrast to the grimy city he was now in. He immediately longed for the soft grass, warm sun, and seabreeze but pushed the thought out of his mind as he quickly sat up and looked around.

He was in a long and narrow expanse between two older buildings, an alley. The ground was dirty and the small boy's white tank top and bare feet easily picked up the grime. Curiously, he pushed himself to his feet and walked in the direction of the street a couple paces away. He was immediately met with chaos.

People were running and screaming, and a large man around 8 feet tall who resembled a gorilla was currently raging in the middle of the road. A large mass quickly shot towards Gon from the right and he instinctively dodged. A feminine cry immediately caught his attention and he turned toward the source of it. A woman lay on the ground, sprawled helplessly as if she had just been thrown across the street. Which she had. Gon then realized she was the thing that had flown at him and he instantly regretted not catching her. He rushed over and knelt down.

"Are you okay, miss?" he all but yelled to be heard over the man gorilla and the screaming masses.

She winced and propped herself up onto her elbows. "Yeah I'm fine, my quirk cushioned my fall. I should have ran with everyone else instead of trying to stand my ground. That asshole really packs a punch."

Gon had no idea what a quirk was, maybe a specialist nen ability, but as long as she was alright that was all that mattered. His face transformed from anxious worry to innocent delight as he exclaimed, "Great! I guess I'll go take care of him then!"

The woman was too shocked to respond before the strange kid ran off, her hand too slow to catch him from running straight into danger. Immediate dread befell her, as she watched his retreating back. He looked homeless in his dirty tank top and shorts, bereft of shoes. She struggled to push herself to her feet but she knew she would be too late to save him.

Gon made a beeline for the gorilla guy, who was currently smashing all the windows out of a gift shop as people attempted to flee.

"HEY!" he shouted, utilizing the full capacity of his lungs. "OVER HERE, GORILLA GUY!"

The gorilla man, astonished that someone dared stand up to him and not run away, slowly turned to face the high pitched voice, his over sized hands shaking off broken glass. The sight that met his eyes was underwhelming to say the least. A ratty looking little kid with stupid looking hair and determined eyes. Was this a joke? It must be. The gorilla easily hefted up a stray food truck as the owner wailed about his livelihood and half heartedly threw it at the kid to shut him up. What he hadn't expected was for the kid to _jump_.

Gon easily leapt over the large projectile, and as soon as he touched down again shot himself right at the large man. Upon him in an instant, the boy lashed out with his foot and it connected with the gorilla man's face, sending the large man sprawling back onto his ass and glaring at the small boy in confusion and shock. People stopped running, and their screams soon turned into cheers for the green haired boy. Recovering from his shock, the gorilla man roared and charged at Gon, who effortlessly dodged out of the path of a unrefined punch, ducked under a haphazard kick, and jumped up on top of the unnaturally large hands that had just tried to grab him. Without giving the man a chance to grab at him again, Gon launched his fist into the man's stomach and the air was forced out of his lungs with an audible gasp.

While the gorilla was struggling to regain his breath, Gon let out a sad sigh to himself. Sure, he hadn't neglected his training since he returned home to Whale Island after meeting Ging, but he really couldn't pack that much of a punch without nen. His body was in peak condition physically but should he be facing an actually powerful opponent he would be practically useless. He was drawn out of his melancholy musings as the man began to charge at him again.

"Come here you little shit!" the gorilla roared, "I'm going to tear you in half!"

Gon let go of his thoughts and let the thrill of the fight wash over him instead, a grin finding its way to his face. "Yeah right!" he declared, easily dodging the sloppy right hook the man threw at him. Gon continued to dance around the street avoiding the man and tiring him down, but he failed to take into account the growing crowd of people and how they kept inching closer to get a better view of the fight. (People here really have no sense of self preservation.)

Realizing his mistake too late, the green haired boy was forced to throw himself in the way of one of the man's stray fists that would have connected with an elementary aged boy who had gotten a little too curious and bold. Gon grunted as the fist impacted with his crossed arms, pushing him back a few inches. However, he held his ground and the small boy was kept out of harm's way. Because of this action though, Gon almost immediately felt pain radiate throughout his entire left side as the gorilla man's other fist finally got a clean hit. The green haired boy felt himself flying through the air for a brief moment before he crashed down onto the street. The man let out a sadistic laugh as he quickly advanced upon Gon, who braced himself for a second hit. But it never came.

Suddenly the gorilla man was sent flying into one of the buildings he had already destroyed with a deafening crash and there was a different large shadow towering over Gon's small frame. Surprised, Gon looked up and met the smiling face of a very muscular blond man. The onlookers immediately began muttering among themselves and it soon evolved into adoring cheers.

"All Might is here!"

"Of course the #1 hero came to save us!"

"We can always count on him!"

The man himself didn't even seem to hear this praise as he took off after the gorilla man he had just punched into a building. He returned a few moments later dragging the unconscious body of the gorilla who was then detained by the police who had conveniently arrived right after the fight was over. The muscular man stopped for a moment to pose for the masses before his gaze fell to Gon. He began to walk towards the boy, the smile never leaving his face despite the small beads of sweat trailing down his body.

"That was an impressive fight, young man, but you should know that vigilantism and unlicensed quirk usage is illegal," the man spoke directly to the green haired boy, his voice just below a bellowing tone.

Gon had no idea what vigilantism was, it sounded like something Killua would know and have to explain to Gon. He also had no idea what a quirk was, though since the woman from earlier also used it must be something common wherever he was. Where _was_ he anyways? Allowing his eyes to wander away from the kind of creepy smiling muscular guy, Gon realized that all the writing he saw was in an unfamiliar language, he was seeing some weird technology, and something just felt fundamentally _wrong_.

"I-" Gon quickly shut his mouth, eyebrows knitted together in confusion, not sure how to respond to the man. "I have no idea what you just said," he ended up admitting honestly.

Surprise flickered over All Might's face for a brief moment before concern set in.

"I'm sorry?" he asked the boy. "What do you not understand?"

"Everything," Gon answered instantly. "What's a vigil-whatever, what's a quirk, why is it bad, and where _am_ I?"

All Might's face became one of consternation, though the smile never left his face. "We are in Tokyo; do you recognize me, young man?"

"I have no idea who you are weird smiling guy." Gon was actually concerned for the man since it seemed like he was unable to stop smiling. Was it a medical condition or something?

"Oh, that may be a problem. Please go with these officers so we can get everything sorted out, alright young man?" All Might gestured to the policemen who were currently walking in their direction, no doubt to get statements and commend All Might for a job well done as usual.

Gon was still confused beyond belief (and why couldn't the apparently famous guy answer his questions anyways?) but allowed himself to be seated in the back of a police car and driven to a station. At least that was a familiar concept, unlike this really strange muscular man. He watched the hulking form of the blond retreat as the car drove away, wondering if he'd see him again some day.

* * *

 **I've been lurking on this site for years and I finally decided to write something. Hopefully this turns out well! The next chapter will focus on Killua, and should be up relatively soon. Thank you for reading :)**

 _ **Edit: Changed the title from Antithesis to Blue and Orange. Google 'blue and orange morality' for context.**_


	2. Chapter II

CHAPTER II

Waking up tied to a chair wasn't anything new for Killua, but he did have to wonder how he got into his current predicament.

The last thing he remembered was going to sleep for the night at a motel; he and Alluka had been travelling together for months and had no plans to return home anytime soon, if at all. It was nice to be away from their toxic family and experience the world. They'd managed to make their way across most of the known continents and had grown very close during their adventures.

A brief shot of panic invaded Killua's mind for his little sister, but he relaxed once he rationalized that she could take care of herself. During their travels, Killua taught her self defense and how to awaken her nen, plus there was also Nanika who could probably get herself out of any situation with her wishes. They would be fine.

Killua himself, on the other hand, had no idea what was currently happening in his own situation. Whatever it was, it was a far cry from intimidating: the knots binding him to the chair were loose, he wasn't gagged or blindfolded, and he felt no pain at all, so clearly his captors weren't trying very hard or they were completely incompetent. Neither situation posed a real threat to Killua so he remained nonplussed. He was also apparently seated in a bar, which was a rather counterproductive interrogation or torture setting.

"Ah, you're finally awake," a voice suddenly called out from behind Killua. Footsteps echoed around him as the body attached to the voice came into view, and stopped in front of the white haired boy. Killua had seen a lot of weird things in his relatively short life, but a guy wearing dismembered hands for fashion was definitely a new one. Not to mention the man was limping and covered in bandages, smelling like old blood. He merely raised an eyebrow at the hands guy, not bothering with a response.

"My master has summoned you from another world to serve our cause. What abilities do you have to offer?" Shigaraki spoke directly, unperturbed by the boy's apparent apathy for his predicament.

Killua snorted. "If you actually brought me here from a completely different world – which is dubious – why am I being treated like a prisoner?"

Shigaraki felt a spike of annoyance, the small boy starting to grate on his admittedly short temper. "To ensure your alliance to our cause and make sure you didn't rampage the second you woke up. We had no way of knowing how you would react to being transported to this world."

Killua actually rolled his eyes at that, ignoring the seething posture that immediately overtook the man in front of him. "I don't serve anyone," he stated, nonchalantly tearing the bonds that bound him to the chair. Shigaraki took half a step back as Killua stood and began to stretch his stiff limbs. "So I'll be leaving now. See you never." Killua lazily raised a hand as he turned his back to Shigaraki and walked toward the exit of the bar.

"Kurogiri!" Shigaraki screamed in frustration as the boy threw open the door.

Killua was forced to halt in his tracks as he was met with dark, swirling antimatter on the other side of the door. Kurogiri, who had teleported himself into the room behind the bar evenly called out, "That portal will just bring you right back to this room. Should you try to escape another way you will meet the same interference."

Killua let out a small exasperated sound and spun back around face Shigaraki, annoyance playing in his big blue eyes. "What do you want?"

Shigaraki's barely visible mouth warped into a twisted grin. "We just want your cooperation, kid. We have enemies to destroy and need manpower."

"You must be in a pretty sad state if you're just kidnapping people and trying to force them to join you." Killua's scathing remark struck deeply within Shigaraki, who was already physically and mentally wounded from his recent loss at USJ. Not only had his plan completely failed, but he had made a laughing stock of the entire League of Villains. His fragile ego couldn't take being humiliated by children two times in a row.

The messy haired man's frame began to shake as his small amount of control evaporated. Rage clouded his vision and mind as he lunged at Killua's throat without stopping to think how disappointed his master would be with him for killing his new asset. Before Kurogiri could interfere, the room was flooded with killing intent. Shigaraki found himself rooted in place, his rage suddenly transformed into fear, though he could not comprehend why until he met the previously mischievous eyes of the small boy. The manchild had very rarely seen eyes so cruel and bloodthirsty; those eyes started straight through his soul. Shigaraki would be dead the instant the boy wished it.

And as suddenly as it came, the overwhelming bloodlust dissipated. The boy didn't say anything, he didn't have to. His point had been made. Once he recovered a few moments later, Shigaraki actually began to laugh. It was a dry wheeze full of malice, but a laugh nonetheless. "Master really outdid himself with this one," he excitedly proclaimed.

Before Killua could issue another scathing retort, the screen on the far wall came to life. There was no face, just a blank screen, but a sudden presence was apparent in the room. "Intriguing," a disembodied voice spoke from the screen, "I could feel that bloodlust even from my location. You are a valuable find, young one."

Killua shoved his hands in his pockets. "Great, another person talking down to me," he drawled. "How about someone explains what's going on or I force my way out of here?" Despite his casual tone of voice, the villains were very aware that he would be able to do exactly as he said judging by the boy's previous show of power.

In an attempt to placate their volatile 'guest', All for One spoke up. "I am the one who brought you here, young one. I possess a quirk that allows me to bring things from other dimensions to this world."

"Yeah I'm not buying the whole 'other world' thing. Where is your proof? I have yet to see anything impossible here," Killua challenged. He mentally took notice of the word quirk, which was a strange word choice but technically still grammatically correct. Maybe it had a different connotation to these people.

"I understand that your world has a different writing system," the voice said. "The newspaper on the table nearest to you should be proof enough."

Killua sauntered over to the aforementioned newspaper and unceremoniously snatched it off the table, dramatically opened it, and gave the words a hard look. His eyes then moved back to the screen with a withering look of impatience. "Wow, kanji, truly I'm in a different world." Killua's words were dripping with sarcasm. Nihongo (referred to as Japanese by the rest of the world) was an obscure language unless you travelled to the far east of the world, but Killua was given a very thorough education; he knew many of the lesser spoken languages in the world. Whatever con his kidnappers were playing at may have worked on the average person but clearly they had no idea they were dealing with a Zoldyck.

"Perhaps the internet would be a better example, please search whatever you desire to confirm this is indeed a different world than your own," the disembodied voice continued, not reacting to Killua's blatant attempt to get a reaction. Kurogiri threw a cell phone to Killua, who easily caught it and quickly examined the phone making sure there was nothing going to harm him or control him. This would be a perfect opportunity for a manipulator to take control of his mind, but Killua sensed nothing from the inoffensive phone in his hand.

The only thing out of place was that it seemed to be a newer model than what he was owned. He opened the internet browser and began to type in katakana, which was aligned with the standard language of the world **(see author's note at bottom for explanation)**. However, Killua's first search came up with nothing. He raised an eyebrow. The Zoldyck family operation was largely secret and operated on the dark web, but it was well known to the public that they existed. He then searched 'Hunter' but was only met with normal wildlife hunting and some hero hunting serial killer with a bland name. Next he searched Yorknew, figuring it was a city important enough to be known in even the most obscure countries. Instead he got suggestions for a city called New York. Strange.

Killua put the foreign, potentially tampered with phone down and dug his own out of his pocket. Unlocking it and opening his internet browser, he found that he had no connection. Well, that was suspicious.

"A phone that could be altered isn't enough to convince me," Killua finally spoke. He remained dubious of the situation but he was starting to see the potential for his 'captors' to be telling the truth.

"We do not possess quirks that can tamper with information," the disembodied voice spoke again in a reassuring voice.

"That's the second time you've used the word quirk," Killua quickly fired back. "What connotations does it carry for you?"

"You don't know what a quirk is?" Shigaraki blurted out.

"Apparently not in the way you're using it," Killua bit back. "Some kind of ability?"

"Yes, it is a special ability unique to the person who holds it," the voice confirmed. "Typically quirks are determined by genes and children develop them young but on rare occasions they can be passed from person to person."

"As you have seen, my quirk is making portals," Kurogiri spoke up.

"Your world may have another name for these abilities," the voice suggested. "But what is your quirk, young one?"

Killua wasn't about to reveal his nen abilities, but these people were clearly expecting some sort of answer. Something genetic? Do assassination techniques count? "My hands can turn into claws?" Killua tried, hoping they would accept his word.

"Ah, a natural predator quirk. That explains your bloodlust as well," Kurogiri theorized.

Killua had no idea where the man got that from but he just went with it. "Uh, sure."

"Well then, I believe it would be wise to take our young guest out into the city to experience firsthand the injustice that occurs there as well as convince him of his otherworldly status," the disembodied voice smoothly transitioned into. "Kurogiri, please take him out and show him the city. And might I remind you, young one, that I am the one who brought you to this world and I am the only one who can send you back. I advise against rebelling if you ever wish to return home." With that last order and threat, the screen went dark and the suffocating presence was gone.

"For the record, I'm still not convinced," Killua said rather loudly.

"You will be soon enough," Kurogiri said patiently, long having gotten used to the childishness of Shigaraki. "Come, boy."

Killua allowed himself to be covered in a dark portal, discretely covering his body in an imperceptible layer of ten, readying himself for anything that he was going to walk into, but it really wasn't necessary.

Sunlight immediately assaulted Killua's eyes as he blinked rapidly, his eyes adjusting from the dark bar. He was currently standing on top of a building with the portal user about 15 stories up from the ground. From their vantage point he could make out faint dots - people - on the streets down below, large advertisements on the buildings, and also some sort of fight that was raging on the street directly below him. A large gorilla was swinging wildly at something, presumably a small person. His attacks finally managed to connect as a small blur went flying across the street and landed roughly.

Killua watched apathetically, barely paying attention. He had seen a lot of ignominious and out of the ordinary things in life and this really wasn't going to make the cut. Suddenly the gorilla went soaring into an already damaged building courtesy of another large figure, though this one appeared to be human. The gorillia did not come back out. Following that KO, the fight was clearly over and Killua turned his bored eyes back towards Kurogiri. "So what was the point of this again?"

"This world is corrupted by a convoluted system of 'heroes'," Kurogiri began, disdain seeping into his voice. "They are paid by the government and work in agencies in order to 'uphold justice' against the 'villains'. However, in order to be a hero, one must obtain a license and abide by all the strict laws put in place to 'regulate' society. Theoretically this is a sound idea, but many of the people who are considered professional heroes are often corrupt. They seek fame and fortune, and only save people because it's in the job requirements. Yet there are vigilantes who genuinely want to improve the world and are shunned for their actions because they are not officially licensed. They often face legal repercussions and jail time for fighting crime.

Aside from them, there are those of us who are disillusioned by the current hero system and seek to expose its ugly truths. That is what our organization, the League of Villains, seeks to undermine. Although the others have their own personal reasons for wanting to take down heroes, we all come together to fight the flawed system. This is the organization that we are asking you to assist." After such a long monologue, the man became quiet, and the air became tense for a moment as Killua pondered upon the information he was just presented.

"That's a justified cause I guess, but I really have no interest in helping the people who kidnapped me," Killua finally answered. "And I still am not completely buying the whole different world thing."

Kurogiri gave a curt nod. "I understand that, if it eases your mind you may walk the streets yourself. I suggest checking the news networks and libraries, as they will give you the most information."

Killua glanced at the portal man curiously. "Aren't you supposed to be keeping me hostage or something?"

"I did not say that I would not tail you the entire time."

Killua snorted. "Good luck with that." And he disappeared into thin air.

Kurogiri had a brief moment of panic before remembering the tracker that had been placed upon the boy before he woke up. Pulling out the tracking device, he created a portal to take him to the boy's location. This was going to be a tiring afternoon.

Killua instantly took off, not that he was waiting for permission. He didn't really care either way whether or not the portal man managed to follow him; if the League of Villains (what a lame name) really wanted him they could find him again. He soon found himself wandering the city and confirmed that the language here was Japanese. There were a lot more strange looking people, many of them appeared to be like Chimera Ants, but apparently it was normal as no one was in a panic and all was peaceful.

He wandered the city for the better part of the afternoon to gather information about his location. Although he was still slightly doubtful, he was almost certainly in another world. The straw that finally broke down his convictions was that he could not access the hunter websites anywhere, they simply just did not exist. His phone also remained without service despite the fact that he had the latest phone model. He supposed it didn't matter whether he was in a different world or just another unknown continent, because the world map was completely different here all the same. He really didn't have a way to get back home.

Letting out an audible sigh, Killua rationalized that he could probably manage to find someone here to send him back, but the again the people he had met first had the ability to send him home and he wouldn't have to hunt them down. He could probably just do some work for them and be on his way. Or so he hoped. It may take some manipulation, but that would have to be his current plan. Chances are they would just want him to kill some heroes in their way, which didn't bother Killua in the slightest if it meant he could return to Alluka and his own world. He couldn't help but feel a twinge of worry for her despite her ability to take care of herself for a short period of time while he was gone.

Killua returned to the rooftop that he was originally warped to by the portal user. Soon enough the man also appeared. He remained silent, waiting for Killua to say something.

"What does the League want from me?" Killua asked flat out.

"Your power," Kurogiri answered without missing a beat. "We have many enemies who try to defame us, should they disappear we would appear in a better light, or at least a more feared light."

"And if I complete the tasks given to me I can return home," Killua stated more than asked. It was a challenge.

"Theoretically yes," Kurogiri responded evenly. The white haired boy's eyes narrowed at that remark but he let it go for now.

"Fine, let's get this over with then," the boy said with no small amount of exasperation.

"As you wish," the warp user replied, creating a portal to send both of them back to the League's hideout.

* * *

It was a rather simple job, Killua mused. Kill the journalist for defamation and go home. It reminded him of some of his very first assassinations when he was a small child. Some of the boy's earliest memories were of his hands covered in the blood of others who he had slain. The smile his father gave him when he completed his missions. The torture that came along with failure and training. Shaking away the memories that had suddenly come back to him, Killua instead focused on the silhouette of his target through the window.

The journalist was the only one in the apartment complex with her light still on at 4 AM, no doubt hastily writing up a story for the newspaper she worked under. She was actively known to write very harsh, unforgiving opinions on villains and was praised by the public for having a "strong sense of justice". Killua mentally rolled his eyes at that one. This place seemed so black and white in their laws and morality. It was incredibly restrictive and unforgiving. At home, as long as you had the power or status you could practically get away with anything as long as you didn't piss off the wrong people.

Here, he had quickly ascertained that killing in this world was condemnable and he would rather not waste his time running from their law enforcement. Not that that was going to stop him, but he would have to take precautions so he was never caught and could continue to show his face in public.

The pale boy decided that all of his assassinations would have to leave no witnesses and he would do them as quickly as possible (without being reckless) in order to keep his name and face clean. Having already sliced the wires to all the camera in the vicinity, Killua silently picked the lock on the balcony door without fear of being seen. He casually walked inside once the door was open, his footsteps silent as a ghost.

The woman's back was to him and the only sound in the room was the rapid typing on her keyboard. Next to her, however, there was a pen scrawling notes on a sheet of paper apparently of its own volition. Killua was taken aback for a moment before remembering that most people here harnessed quirks, though he found it strange that so many people were able to use nen and that it was common knowledge. Was a quirk even nen actually? It felt similar yet slightly different like most other things in Japan, the country he had learned he was currently in. He supposed he would have to figure that out later. Right now he had a job to do.

The woman took her fingers off the keys to stretch and slumped down into her chair, likey exhausted. Just as she began to stand up and turn around, Killua struck. He wasted no time and was instantly across the room, his hand easily slicing through the woman's neck and spine to decapitate her. Blood sprayed all over the laptop screen and the pen that was previously suspended in the air fell back onto the table limply. The pristine white paper slowly saturated with the journalist's blood, becoming dyed a grotesquely bright red. With a dull thud the severed head hit the ground and rolled a few feet away, its half lidded eyes completely unsuspecting.

Killua was not willing to take risks with so many people here potentially being more durable than the average person, so he followed through with slicing the head in half as well to prevent the telekinetic woman from making some last ditch effort against him. After taking one last look at his work to inspect it, he turned back around and left the apartment, closing the door with his clean hand behind him and jumping off the balcony into the awaiting dark portal.

* * *

Having seen the news of the famous journalist's brutal murder in the morning, Shigaraki spent the entire day in a great mood. That woman had been his worst critic after USJ, calling him a teenager playing villain who had no understanding of how the real world worked. As much as the decay quirk user would have loved to disintegrate her organs himself, he was admittedly not in any condition to go anywhere and wasn't exactly known for stealth in the first place.

That was why the pale kid was a great addition to the League's ranks. He was untraceable and unwavering, as Shigaraki and the others had quickly found out after they tested him against a couple grunts of low and medium strengths.

After Kurogiri had returned from the city with the boy - who had finally given in to aiding the league - Shigaraki brought him to an abandoned warehouse the League occupied and had the kid fight. He had instantly overpowered the grunts and knocked them out with a single attack each. When questioned why he didn't kill them, the boy snarkily replied, "Your pathetic organization is low on manpower already, you're incredibly stupid if you think killing any more is a good idea". Shigaraki had to restrain himself from attacking the boy again, but the annoying kid did have a point. Too bad he refused to give his name. Said some bullshit about not wanting to leave a trace anywhere but Shigaraki knew it was just because the boy didn't trust him or the League. He was smart in that regard, the League didn't trust him either.

Since the first killing, the boy successfully completed five more murders in the span of three days, and Shigaraki was honestly at a loss of who else to tell the boy to kill. Yes, the League had enemies but most of them weren't a real threat and the League was trying to recruit villains not scare them away. He also hadn't expected the white haired boy to complete his jobs so fast, as he was explicitly told he had time to research his targets before he killed them.

Either the kid was incredibly resourceful or he was confident enough that he didn't do any research. Maybe a little bit of both. However he did spend most of the daylight hours exploring Tokyo, most likely to gain information about the area and its people. Shigaraki wondered briefly if the boy would turn on them once he got the full perspective of society (the League, after all, was very biased in the information they gave him) but rationalized that even if he did for some odd reason wish to join the heroes, they wouldn't accept a boy who had killed some of their own into their ranks.

But (and here was the real kicker) if the kid had only killed morally ambiguous people, they'd accept him with open arms like the bigots they were. The thought almost sent him spiraling into another rage, but he digressed. He should be focusing on how ecstatic he felt over the boy's elimination of the League's enemies instead. Perhaps it was time for him to start giving the boy more powerful targets like low ranked pro heroes, though it may not garner much attention since there was already someone else out murdering pro heroes who was starting to grab the interest of many villains.

But then again, that was the perfect time to strike and have the League take over the limelight. Shigaraki grinned to himself. Yes, that was an excellent idea.

* * *

Killua absentmindedly made his way down the street, smiling down mirthfully at the screen of his new phone which displayed a news article.

 _THE GHOST STRIKES AGAIN_

 _The newest serial killer of Tokyo has made a bold entrance onto the national stage with seven confirmed victims in five days. The latest of the murders occurred around 3 AM this morning. The victim, who will remain anonymous due to safety reasons, was an information broker who had previously announced to law enforcement that he had valuable information on the League of Villains, but would not share it unless he was given a large sum of money first. Before the detectives could make a decision, The Ghost took his life. Although it is still just speculation, this further enforces the theory that The Ghost is working with the League of Villains and eliminating those who oppose them._

 _For those who do not yet know, The Ghost is the alias assigned to the villain who has killed all of his victims by_ _decapitation and disappeared without a trace. Nobody has witnessed the murders or seen the murderer; all cameras in the vicinity of the killings were tampered with or destroyed so there is no evidence to incriminate the killer. It is possible that The Ghost has an invisibility quirk, which will make the investigation very tricky. The rate at which he is acting is also extremely concerning and is unlikely to slow down. Pro heroes are being dispatched to Hosu and the Kiyashi Ward where the murders have occurred, but it is implored that anyone who has information about The Ghost step forward. Any information you may know will help save the lives of others._

Killua thought it was kind of hilarious how bent out of shape the media and public were over a couple killings. All the targets Killua had been given were just normal, unsuspecting people who nobody really cared about. It was hardly a challenge and plenty of other people could also do the same thing he was doing. The small assassin didn't know why the media was making such a big deal out of his work since there was also another serial killer on the streets who was killing professional heroes. That actually took effort.

He continued to contemplate for a few minutes and his phone screen shut itself off. Killua sighed. His phone from home was worthless here, completely unable to get a signal or connect to wifi in the five days he'd been here. He'd taken it to a repair shop in the sketchier part of town and the tech guy had been baffled by the technology, claiming he had never seen Killua's phone model before. Irritated, Killua went out to buy a new phone at the request of Kurogiri, though it would also just be useful to have. This way he wouldn't have to talk to Tomura face to face, as the two of them often clashed. (The manchild was especially pissed that the small boy kept calling him by his first name instead of Shigaraki.) Killua would also be up to date on news and could research his targets and the area in general without having to go to a library. Speaking of Shigaraki and Kurogiri, the two of them were beginning to trust Killua more, or at least watch his every move less vigilantly. They were pleased with the results he brought and were beginning to become complacent.

That was fine with Killua, it was always best when others underestimated him. Kurogiri was a fairly reasonable person though, unlike Tomura, Killua mused. He was level headed and helpful, though Killua had to wonder how he would act in an actual battle. Would he still be calm, or would be begin to panic? Did the malice he kept hidden under his polite demeanor come out? He wondered how Tomura would fare in a fight as well. Sure he could disintegrate things but what use was his power if he was just stumbling around? Clearly his last fight hadn't gone very well judging by the bandages he was always changing.

So lost in thought Killua failed to notice the person that came running around the corner right in front of him and the two collided, knocking their heads together. The phone held loosely in Killua's small hand slipped out of his fingers and clattered to the pavement below, and the person who ran into him had also dropped his phone.

"Ah, I'm so sorry!" a young male voice frantically squeaked, immediately diving for his phone. He didn't even seem fazed by the fact that he'd just ran into Killua hard enough to give himself a concussion. "I'm going to miss my train!"

All Killua saw of the boy's face was large emerald eyes full of panic and a multitude of freckles before the guy ran off frantically. As the boy spirited away, Killua took in the boy's school uniform and messy green hair. The boy made a left around another corner and was gone.

Blinking out of befuddlement, Killua turned his attention back to his own phone still lying idly on the ground. He shrugged to himself and leaned down to pick it up. After inspecting the screen for cracks and finding none, Killua pressed the power button only to be met with a different lock screen than he was used to. He let out a rather loud annoyed sound. The student had grabbed Killua's phone by mistake since they had identical models. Great.

Killua allowed his nen to flow through him and stretched his senses out, but wasn't able to locate the boy. To be fair, he hadn't thought to memorize the boy's nen signature during their brief encounter so he knew he probably wasn't going to find the guy that way. Next Killua tried calling his own phone but nobody answered, presumably the boy was still running or on a train where it would be rude to answer a phone call. Killua just ended up texting his number instead.

 _You took my phone by mistake. Name a time and place to meet and exchange them back._

The young assassin was never one for pleasantries, and texting a stranger was no different. Sliding the phone into his pocket, Killua wandered off into the catacombs of back streets and alleyways (he had memorized these streets on his second day) hoping to find something he could take his frustrations out on. He was just looking for some lowlife to play around with or kill, nobody in particular.

He was aware that his current mood was irrational and rash but he couldn't bring himself to care in the moment. Considering the boy's uniform, Killua wouldn't be getting his phone back until mid afternoon at the earliest. What if Tomura texted him something questionable during the day? The white haired boy was lying low for a reason, he'd rather not have the student tattling to the police or the heroes about some assassination targets sent to his phone. Killua considered tracking the boy down, but decided it would probably be fine. Most of the things Tomura sent were ambiguous enough anyways. Probably.

The small assassin only had to walk around for a few minutes before he was able to latch onto the faint smell of fresh blood that had suddenly pervaded the air. Killua followed the scent in hopes of finding something to take his mind off the annoying phone situation. He sped up his pace to a jog and soon came upon a battle site. Staying hidden behind a large garbage container for the moment, Killua peered out curiously.

Two men were facing each other down, the one on the left wearing a strange outfit that the white haired boy recognized as a hero costume. However the man looked worse for wear. His face was bruised and the skin tight outfit he wore was torn in multiple places. He was pouring blood out of a wound on his right thigh as well. Standing opposite of the battered hero was another male who stood with a slight hunch and wielded a blood soaked sword. Judging by his dark clothing and dramatically tattered scarf Killua was easily able to tell he was a villain. The hero stood stiff and unmoving as the villain went off on a monologue about his convictions about how heroes are self serving and not worthy of their titles.

The boy was surprised that the hero had no retort for the harsh ideals that were being thrown at him, but upon closer inspection it was evident that he was completely paralyzed, judging by his panicked eyes and the slight twitches of his body as he tried desperately to break free. But alas, it was not meant to be. Once the hunched man tired himself out spouting ideology, he sauntered over to the hero and stabbed him straight through the heart with his sword. The paralyzed hero never had a chance, Killua mused as his own bloodlust began to rise at the violence he was witnessing. Even as the hero collapsed to the ground he was still unable to move or speak. His eyes were full of hatred for his killer but they soon glazed over as the life left his tattered body.

The killer stared down at the lifeless body for a few moments, muttering something to himself that sounded suspiciously like a body count. He then straightened himself back up, but did not relax. His eyes snapped piercingly in Killua's direction to the trash bin hiding the boy from sight and he harshly commanded, "Show yourself coward, I can feel your bloodlust from here."

Killua merely grinned.

* * *

 **Yes, Killua witnessed Gon's fight but had no idea it was him. Why? Because he has absolutely no reason to suspect Gon would also be there and Gon also isn't able to use nen, making him practically impossible to trace. Killua has enhanced senses and had he actually paid attention he could have recognized Gon from where he was (approximately 150 feet away) but instead he was just fed up with being kidnapped by a bunch of strangers and didn't care.**

 **So the language thing. Written Japanese consists of kanji 感じ (Chinese characters), hiragana ひらがな (alphabet for Japanese words), and katakana カタカナ (alphabet for foreign words). Hiragana and Katakana are the same alphabet but with different symbols for each sound. For example 'A' is あ in hiragana but ア in katakana. They are spoken the same but written differently. The official HxH language corresponds with hiragana and katakana, so it is also the same alphabet with its own separate symbols for the sounds. 'A' is actually written as an upside down letter A in the HxH language. Google it if you're interested.**

 **I know the pacing in this chapter is a little awkward, so I'll try to improve from here. If you have any suggestions or criticism for me I'm always open to it! I'm not easily offended, you don't have to pull your punches.**


	3. Chapter III

CHAPTER III

Since he had returned home to Whale Island several months ago Gon's life had been fairly uneventful. His mother figure Mito forced him to do school work that he had completely neglected for over a year and a half during his travels, he went fishing, helped out the fishermen at the port, and spent his days among the nature of the island. He also continued to train as to not lose everything he had gained from fighting his way across the world, though it was also just because he was _bored_.

Gon loved his home, he really did, but after becoming a Hunter, getting caught up in a mafia and criminal group plot, partaking in a deadly game, and skirting death with Chimera Ants, Whale Island had become mundane beyond belief. It was honestly a welcome surprise to wake up in a strange alleyway in a completely foreign place with no clue as to how he'd gotten there. He missed the feeling of adrenaline pumping through his veins, his heartbeat echoing through his entire body, and the state of total focus he was able to enter during a fight.

His body continued buzzing long after his short battle with the gorilla guy, endorphins keeping him in a contented state. It wasn't until he was seated at a table in a lonely room in the police station that the adrenaline began to wear off and the boy became impatient and fidgety. An officer had led him to the private room and told him that someone would come talk to him soon. That was 15 minutes ago, though it felt more like an hour to Gon. He was eager to explore his new surroundings, and being confined to a small room was making him restless. He began pacing the room with nothing else to do.

Outside the room, one of the officers who had driven the boy to the station was briefing detective Tsukauchi about the strange kid he'd brought in.

"The kid held back a 8 ft tall villain with a gorilla quirk on his own; he clearly has some kind of strength enhancing quirk. However, he seemed confused when we chewed him out for acting as a vigilante, especially since he seems to be about 12 years old. He also didn't know who All Might was, but that's impossible so he must be pulling our chain on that one. The kid looks homeless, though when I asked him about it he said he wasn't. Seems to me like we've either got the most oblivious kid in all of Japan or a really bad liar."

Tsukauchi frowned, slightly baffled by the information he'd just been given. Perhaps the boy had amnesia? Or maybe he was a foreigner, which would explain his confusion with Japanese hero society. But how would a young boy travel to a different country all on his own and survive without knowing a single thing about the culture? The detective shook his head, pulling himself out of his theories. He supposed he should just go ask the kid himself. Thanking the officer, Tsukauchi reached for the doorknob as the other man gave a small bow and turned to return to his own duties.

The detective didn't know what he was expecting to see when he opened the door, but a small, skinny kid covered in dirt and missing shoes was definitely not it. The boy had frozen mid stride when Tsukauchi opened the door and let himself in, but he soon broke into an infectious smile and his eyes radiated relief.

"I am detective Tsukauchi Naomasa, and I'd like to ask you a couple questions about yourself and the villain you just fought. Please take a seat," the man said and gestured to the table in the center of the room. The boy complied, his bare feet softly padding on the cold tile floor.

"First, let's begin with your name," the detective spoke while also taking a seat opposite of the kid.

"My name is Gon Freecss," the boy replied, overly chipper. "Nice to meet you detective!"

Tsukauchi was slightly taken aback by Gon's enthusiasm but he brushed it off as he wrote down the boy's admittedly strange name. ゴンフリークス。"How old are you, Gon?"

"I'm thirteen."

After writing down 十三歳 for his age, the detective asked curiously, "Are you from around here? Freecss isn't exactly a local name."

Gon hesitated before saying, "Well..."

The detective frowned. "Are you homeless?" he asked bluntly.

The boy flushed slightly but shook his head. "No, I'm not. I'm just...not exactly sure where home is right now."

Naomasa raised an eyebrow at the boy.

"I live on a small island called Whale Island," Gon quickly continued, realizing what he said before was confusing. "But I don't know where it is in relation to here. I woke up on the street where the gorilla guy was and I have no idea how I got there," the boy confessed.

That was very concerning, the detective mused. "Are you able to contact your parents?" he asked the boy.

"Er, my dad's a Hunter so he's never home and I never knew my mom but I guess I can try to call Ging, uh, my dad I mean," the boy mumbled, his previously happy attitude almost doing a complete 180. As the boy pulled his phone out of his pocket and began typing in a phone number, Tsukauchi wrote down a few short notes about a potentially troubled family life and Whale Island, which he'd never heard of before.

"The call won't go through," Gon said with a frown. "I can't get any service."

"Well then let's finish up a couple other questions and after that you can go outside to make the call," Naomasa suggested. Gon nodded in agreement and the older man took that as a sign to continue.

"Alright then, why did you fight the villain? You claim to have woken up on the street where he was but that doesn't explain why you attacked."

Gon let out a nervous laugh before speaking. "I was just excited. Being at home is really boring so I was happy to finally get to _do_ something," he said sheepishly.

Tsukauchi blinked. "You were _excited_? That's hardly the first thought of the average person when faced with a rampaging villain. Were you so confident in your abilities that you'd be able to defeat him and save everyone else there?"

"Not at all," Gon replied instantly. "I had no idea if I could beat him or not, but that's the fun part! I haven't gotten the chance to fight in months so I didn't know how it was going to turn out."

That...made even less sense to the detective. "You would risk your life so easily for others?"

Gon gave another sheepish look. "Well, I really just fought the gorilla guy because it was a fun thing to do, but I guess I also kind of did because I felt bad that he threw a lady across the street and I didn't catch her. Does that count?" the boy asked innocently.

Naomasa put down his pen and rubbed his temples with his hands. "That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard," he confessed. "You broke the law for acting as a vigilante and for unlicensed quirk usage and it was all just so you could have fun. Your quirk must really be something if you're that headstrong."

"What's a quirk?" Gon asked, confused. "And what's a vigil-whatever?"

The detective froze for a moment before let his hands fall back onto the table with a thud. Oh my god, he thought, this kid actually is from an island in the middle of nowhere.

"A quirk is a special ability you are born with that is unique to you. Some people can create fire from their bodies, others can levitate objects or read minds, and many are born with zoomorphic forms that are not completely human. Quirks are endlessly diverse. For you, Freecss-san, it would make sense for you to have a strength related quirk as you were able to fight an 8 foot tall gorilla man with your bare hands. Do you recall any particular things about yourself that make you stand out from others?"

The green haired boy let out a small hmm. "I can't think of anything," he admitted. "I mean I _used_ to have strong abilities but I can't use them anymore...so no?"

"What happened to this 'strong ability' that it just disappeared?" Naomasa probed.

"I overused it," Gon said simply. "It's been gone for months and I haven't felt anything since then."

"That's a very unique and troublesome sounding quirk," the detective admitted. "But that still doesn't explain how you, a thirteen year old boy, were able to hold your own against an 8 ft tall villain that was wrecking an entire block."

Gon shrugged. "My great grandma always told me I was a strong kid I guess."

"Perhaps your quirk is just natural strength and you never noticed as it was always there," Tsukauchi theorized.

"That makes sense I suppose," Gon agreed hesitantly. "That would also explain why I heal much faster than other people and have a really good sense of smell."

The detective raised his eyebrows. "That sounds like a superhuman quirk to me." At Gon's evident confusion, the man explained further. "You are born with abilities that naturally put you above the average human but you never notice because it is just the standard for you."

"I guess so," Gon replied hesitantly, still a little lost.

"However that still makes what you did illegal," Naomasa went on, coming back to the original topic. "Your actions still fall under vigilante work."

"Okay but what's a vigilante?" Gon all but whined out of frustration.

"A vigilante is someone who takes justice into their own hands without being officially licensed to do so," Tsukauchi explained patiently. "As opposed to a professional hero, who has a license to fight villains and save civilians."

Gon cocked his head in confusion. "Why does it matter if they both get the same result in the end?"

"Pro heroes are trained intensively how to handle villains for years, and vigilantes almost always lack the professional and resourceful characteristics that heroes all have. Being a professional hero is a career after all," Naomasa told the boy. "It's like a gym teacher trying to be a professional sports coach. He technically has the basic skills required for the job but he has no idea about all the idiosyncrasies of the job."

"Eh? So people become heroes just so they can fight people?" Gon asked, not completely understanding. "That sounds like fun!"

Tsukauchi shook his head. "Not exactly. Different people have different reasons for becoming professional heroes. Some just love the thrill of a fight, some have strong morals that they wish to enact, some want money or fame, and others want the access to classified government information and networking."

"So being a hero is kind of like being a Hunter," Gon mused out loud. "Though Hunters don't have to help people," he added.

"A hunter?" the older man asked. "Someone who hunts wild animals isn't exactly on the same level as a professional hero. They're not related at all."

"Not that kind of hunter," Gon replied. "A _Hunter_."

"I don't know what you're referring to," Naomasa admitted.

"You know, the people that take the hunter exam and pass and get a license that gives them access to pretty much everything?" Gon rambled. "Really strong and usually have some purpose for why they want to be a hunter?"

"I feel like I know even less than before you mentioned it," the detective deadpanned.

Gon sweatdropped and laughed in embarrassment. He took his hand off the table to dig around in his pocket for a moment before pulling it back out with a plastic card in his hand. He then presented it to Tsukauchi.

"This is my Hunter license," Gon explained. "It basically gives me access to all the information I want and allows me to travel where ever I want to. And other stuff but that's pretty much all I use it for," the boy finished lamely.

The detective leaned forward in his seat to get a closer look at the license Gon had just presented to him. It was foreign, the man had never seen anything like it before. But the thing that stood out the most to him was the writing.

"What language is this?" Naomasa asked curiously.

"Eh?" Gon exclaimed. "What do you mean? It's the language we're speaking!"

The older man fixed the boy with a strange look. He pushed his notepad towards Gon, allowing him to see the notes written on it. "On the contrary, this is the written language for what we are currently speaking." It looked the same as all the signs the boy saw out on the streets.

Now Gon was beyond confused. "But how is that possible?" he asked.

"It seems that your home has developed their own writing system, which isn't surprising since it is so isolated that you do not know the cultural norms of the rest of the world," the detective explained.

"But the whole world uses _this_!" Gon argued, pointing at the writing on his license.

"How much of the world have you seen?" Naomasa countered, skeptical of the boy's claim.

"I've been to almost all the continents," Gon replied. "And I've never seen this before today," he continued, pointing to the notepad.

Tsukauchi took his phone out of his pocket and opened a world map on his internet browser before showing it to Gon. "Can you point out where Whale Island is on the map?" he requested of the boy.

Gon peered at the phone in concentration, but was almost immediate at a loss. "This is wrong," the boy said in surprise. "I've never seen this map before." He turned on his own phone and pulled up an image that he had thankfully saved a long time ago and presented it to the detective. "This is the real world map."

Now it was Naomasa's turn to stare in befuddlement. Well, this was definitely a bigger problem than he had first anticipated.

* * *

Toshinori Yagi struggled to open the door to the police station, his arms occupied by an enormous stack of paperwork. Being the number one hero also came with the number one amount of paperwork after all. It was actually ridiculous how many forms and reports All Might, or rather his 'assistant' Toshinori had to write. This is what he had originally traveled to Tokyo for, though as always he was sidetracked by villain attacks that he felt obligated to help out with. He had been putting off paperwork for a month now, but with the USJ attack just a few days ago suddenly the government was demanding _all_ his paperwork. He'd been forced to pull a miserable all-nighter to finish it.

One of the interns in the office noticed him struggling with the door and took pity, holding it open for the gaunt man so he could pass through the doorway without dropping his many pounds of papers. Thanking the young woman, Toshinori made a beeline for Tsukauchi's office where he was planning on dumping all the papers and going home for a well deserved nap. Spending some time in his All Might form earlier had drained what little energy he had left for the day.

Toshinori let out an exasperated sigh when he found his detective friend's door locked and the lights off. Great. Now where was he going to leave this shit? He internally berated himself for swearing, but the lack of sleep was really wearing on his nerves. He began to walk aimlessly around the office looking for someone responsible he could abandon his paperwork to as the occasional worker greeted him. Toshinori Yagi was known to be a close friend of detective Tsukauchi after all, and was frequently seen around the station.

Speaking of his friend, Toshinori's heart almost leapt with joy when he finally spotted the detective walking out into the main office from a small room. The gaunt man quickly made his way over to his friend, and didn't notice the small figure that exited the room after the detective until he had already dumped his paperwork into the disgruntled arms of Naomasa.

"Nice to see you too, Yagi," the detective grumbled.

"I'll have you know I stayed up all night to finish those," said man replied haughtily.

Tsukauchi actually rolled his eyes at the Symbol of Peace. "You wouldn't have to stay up all night if you actually did them in a timely manner," he berated.

"Well they're done now, so that's all that matters," the blond replied with a shrug. Now that his mind and body had been relieved of the mental and physical weight of the paperwork, Toshinori finally noticed the boy half hidden behind his old friend. He was rather small, wearing nothing but a dirty white tank top and offensively bright green shorts. He was bereft of shoes. But what was most identifying was his gravity defying green hair and his big, honey eyes. This was the kid from the villain attack earlier, All Might realized.

"This is Gon Freecss," Tsukauchi introduced him, noticing that Yagi was staring. "Gon, this is my old friend Toshinori Yagi."

The small boy's face lit up. "Nice to meet you, Yagi-san!"

"Er, nice to meet you too kid," the gaunt man awkwardly replied, taken aback by the boy's enthusiasm and instant usage of his first name. He was too cute and innocent to correct though.

"We're trying to figure out a place for Gon to stay tonight," the detective continued. "He's far from home and isn't able to return right now." The brown haired man gave the boy a pointed look as he spoke and the kid just nodded. "Perhaps you'd be able to offer your spare bedroom?" Naomasa asked Yagi with an innocent tone. Too innocent.

"Wouldn't it make sense for him to stay with you?" Toshinori fired back, immediately imagining all the disastrous things that could happen if the boy stayed with him and found out his identity.

"On the contrary," the detective countered politely. "I'll be working until 3 AM tonight, and since you just turned in all your work, you're done for the day. It would be more logical for him to go with you. It's just one night after all. We'll hopefully be able to find other housing for him by tomorrow night."

Having known Naomasa for a long time, Yagi _knew_ he was only like this when he really wanted something. He bore into the other man's eyes as if trying to force a telepathic conversation between them. The detective stared back evenly, his eyes unwavering. After a solid twenty or thirty seconds of staring each other down, Toshinori averted his gaze and sighed. "Fine, I'll take him."

Gon bowed low to Toshinori and spoke earnestly. "Thank you, Yagi-san!"

Said man waved his hand dismissively and said, "Don't mention it, kid. It's just one night. I do live far away from here though, it's not a short drive."

"I dont mind," Gon replied with a smile. "That gives me time to see more of this world!"

All Might gave the detective another hard stare at the boy's word choice and this time it was Tsukauchi's turn to wave it off as he mouthed 'I'll explain' to the blond man.

"Alright Gon, can you wait here for a minute while Yagi and I take these papers to my office?" the detective asked the boy.

"Sure!" the kid responded, and plopped himself down on an awaiting bench. The two men took that as their cue and quickly made their way to Tsukauchi's office. As soon as the door was shut, All Might spoke.

"What the hell is going on?"

Naomasa let out a short laugh. "Relax Yagi, the kid's harmless. I just figured out that he's from another world and need some more time to cross reference everything he's said to try and find some kind of connection. He has no idea who All Might is, or even what heroes, vigilantes, or quirks are. I gave him a brief summary but he probably doesn't completely understand. He's only 13 years old, we can't just throw him out on the streets to fend for himself."

The blond man sighed. "He was holding his own against the villain earlier today, I don't think that would be a problem. Though I also agree a child shouldn't be forced to live like that. Do you have any idea how a kid managed to suddenly appear in a different world?"

"Gon has no idea how he got here, he says that he just woke up on the street. Obviously it has to do with some kind of quirk, but god knows who or what brought him here," Naomasa replied with a little bit of frustration. "He showed me a world map of his and it seemed to be like a jumbled up version of our own, so our worlds are likely connected or very similar at the least. He also showed me his Hunter license, which is apparently their equivalent of a Hero license though the premise seems to be slightly different. I just want to know how such a young kid got certified to hold so much power."

"He _is_ very strong and capable for his age," Toshinori mused. "Judging from what I've seen of his fighting style." For whatever reason 'Hunter license' sounded vaguely familiar to him. Maybe he read about it once or something?

"About that, he's under the impression that he doesn't have a quirk, says that his world has something similar but not exactly the same. But in order to face down that villain from earlier he has to have some kind of ability."

"You did say his world operates on a different premise so it's also possible everyone there is naturally stronger than this world," All Might suggested. "Is that why you're trying to pawn him off to me? To test how strong he is? Or is it because you don't trust him and you know I could handle the situation if for some reason he turned against us?"

Naomasa smiled wryly at the Symbol of Peace but didn't offer a direct answer. "He seems like an innocent and friendly kid, you shouldn't have a problem."

All Might let out a sigh and dropped it. "Fine, but if something goes wrong you're taking the blame."

"Naturally, that's why I'm trusting in you to make sure nothing goes wrong in the first place."

Toshinori shook his head in resignment. "Fine, but you owe me for this Naomasa. Anyways, we've been in here for longer than a minute, the kid is waiting on us."

Tsukauchi nodded with a triumphant smile. "He's probably getting restless by now. Let's go." The two exited the private office and made their way back to the boy they'd just been discussing.

* * *

Yagi-san had been right about the drive being long, but Gon didn't mind. He spent 99% of the trip with his face pressed up against the window of the car as he tried to absorb as much of the scenery has he could. Apparently they had been in the city called Tokyo but the blond man lived in another city named Musutafu, thus the long ride. The two didn't talk much during the trip as Gon was too enraptured by the view and Toshinori was too tired to hold small talk. Soon enough, they arrived at the modest home of the frail man. It was fairly small, located in a new subdivision on the outskirts of the city and had a contemporary design. It was evident that Yagi had money, but also that he wasn't trying to flaunt it. Once the car was parked in the garage, the two exited the vehicle and made their way inside after the older man fumbled with his keys.

"Sorry, it's pretty bare here," Toshinori sheepishly told his young guest. "I only live here for my job in Musutafu, I have another home in Minato, Tokyo where my office is located."

"Eh? Do you have two jobs Yagi-san?" Gon asked, surprised. No wonder he looked tired to the bone.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that," the gaunt man dawdled. "I'm a teacher at a high school here in Musutafu and I do all the paperwork for a lazy hero in Tokyo." And he was the #1 hero who stopped crime every day, but that wasn't exactly something All Might could disclose.

"That's really cool!" Gon exclaimed. "What do you teach?"

"A hero class," Yagi answered without going into detail.

"Wow I didn't know schools taught that kind of thing," Gon replied in wonderment. "Though I've never been to a real school so I guess I wouldn't know. I was home schooled by Mito-san."

Toshinori just nodded, not willing to prolong the conversation or pry into the boy's life at the moment. His bed was calling his name and he was _so close_. "Anyways," he spoke, changing the topic, "The guest bedroom and bathroom upstairs are yours for the night. There's plenty of food in the fridge and pantry, so help yourself. I haven't slept in 36 hours so I'm going to head to bed. I'll see you in the morning." The thin man waved half heartedly and disappeared into another room.

He vaguely considered how awful of an idea it was to leave a stranger alone in his house but figured it would be fine. If the boy wanted to slit his throat in his sleep then that's just how he would go. He didn't actually believe that, but tired minds are often dramatic and illogical. Toshinori locked his door anyways, so at least he would wake up if someone tried to enter his room. He then proceeded to collapse in bed without changing his clothes and promptly passed out.

Gon found it a little strange how abrupt Yagi was, but didn't think much of it as the man did say he was really tired. Instead he explored the small house, and was excited to have a soft bed to sleep on. The boy took a shower to cleanse himself of the grime and sweat he'd accumulated during the day and also hand washed his dirty clothes. It would be rude to get his host's bed all dirty after all. Next he made his way down to the kitchen and made himself a simple meal before cleaning his dishes and heading back to the guest bedroom.

The boy plopped down onto the bed and just lay there for a while, lost in thought. He pulled out his phone and sighed when he realized he still had no signal. Not that he was expecting to get one, if he really was in a completely different world than his own. He felt a twinge of guilt for just disappearing on Mito and his great grandmother but it wasn't unusual for him to come and go, so he didn't think about it too much.

After all this was a new adventure, long overdue in Gon's opinion. There was no point in thinking about things he couldn't change right now, it was better to just focus on the excitement of being in a new place. Gon contemplated going out to explore the night life, but decided against it for today. He was already comfortably snuggled up into the bed and he could always go tomorrow night. With a small contented smile, the boy shut off his phone and rolled over onto his side to go to sleep for the night.

* * *

In the morning Gon awoke feeling energetic and ready to go exploring. He ran down the stairs and found his host sitting at the table nursing a cup of coffee.

"Good morning, Yagi-san!" the boy chirped effervescently.

"Good morning, Gon," the blond man replied with a level tone, slightly taken aback at the boy's enthusiasm. "I apologize for being such a lazy host yesterday, I wasn't thinking straight."

Gon waved his hands in front of his face. "It's no problem! Thank you for letting me stay here. But I'll get going now so you don't have to worry about me anymore," the boy said, making his way to the front door to leave.

"I'm not kicking you out!" Toshinori exclaimed in surprise. "You don't have to leave just yet, Gon. You also don't have any shoes."

Gon looked down at his bare feet, having completely forgotten about that in his excitement to explore the city. He laughed sheepishly and made his way back to the kitchen table where he sat down across from Yagi.

"I don't work today so we can go buy you some shoes and clothes," the blond man said. "I'm assuming what you're wearing right now is all you have."

"Yeah," Gon scratched his head in embarrassment. "It would be nice to have some shoes at least. I don't have any money though."

"Don't worry about it," Toshinori assured the boy. "I'll pay for it."

"Oh no, you already let me stay at your place you don't have to buy things for me too!" Gon protested.

"If you're that concerned you can pay me back sometime in the future," Yagi replied to placate the boy. He hoped the boy would just forget about it though, he had no intention of accepting money from the kid.

"Alright..." Gon replied with some hesitation.

Toshinori downed the rest of his coffee and stood up to put the mug in the sink. "I'm ready to go whenever you are," he said.

"Okay, let's go!"

* * *

Toshinori Yagi had no idea how to deal with kids. He already had a hard enough time being a teacher to 15 year olds; he was even teaching them about being heroes, something he was an expert on. The students knew it too, they had to correct him on multiple occasions about random things that were common knowledge that he would just forget about. Or ask dozens of questions about his poorly designed lessons. At least they still respected All Might's strength, because the Class 1A students definitely didn't hero worship him anymore during class. Instead they saw an inexperienced teacher who had a lot to give but had no idea how to communicate his knowledge.

All Might had always been a distant figure, many steps in front of everyone else, and his social skills really suffered for it. Everyone spoke to him reverently, never as an equal. Even other heroes spoke to him cautiously. The extent of his interactions with children was offering them a blinding smile and a few encouraging words when he met them on the streets.

So having one stay in his house and spend the day with him was beyond bizarre for the #1 hero. To make it even worse, according to Naomasa this kid wasn't even from this world. How was he supposed to know how to treat a 13 year old who grew up in a culture that could be completely different from the hero's own? He supposed he should ask the boy about himself, but then the boy would probably ask questions about Toshinori's life as well. He didn't really want to deal with dodging questions about all the gaps in Toshinori Yagi's life from his time spent as All Might. The boy may not have any idea who the Symbol of Peace was but it wasn't going to be long before he caught on with the way the media constantly worshiped him. The gaunt man fully intended to keep Toshinori Yagi and All Might as two separate entities, enough people knew his secret already.

"Yagi-san!" Gon's voice broke through the blond man's internal soliloquy, and he looked up at the boy with a startled expression.

"I'm going ahead, I'll come find you after I'm done!" the green haired boy informed his benefactor, already edging away with a wave of his arm. Before Toshinori could reply the boy ran off and disappeared into the crowded mass of people, his new green boots squeaking with every step. Gon must have been bored with how slow the he been walking and finally decided to ditch, he realized.

Toshinori sighed to himself and sank down on a nearby bench. Were kids normally like this? He wasn't worried about the boy's safety, he had clearly shown he could defend himself, but he had the sinking feeling that Gon was going to get himself into some kind of trouble. Was he being irresponsible by letting the boy go off on his own? Gon seemed confident in himself though, as he'd been planning on just walking out the door this morning with no regard for anything whatsoever. Perhaps it was ignorance instead of confidence. Oh well, no point in worrying about it now that he was already gone. This was a fairly small strip mall, the boy wouldn't be hard to find.

Yagi pulled out his phone and opened an email Naomasa sent last night containing all he knew about the strange boy so far.

 _Name: Gon Freecss_

 _Age: 13_

 _Quirk: Possibly superhuman, though uncertain. He claims to not have a quirk._

 _Home: Whale Island, a small island located presumably in another world._

 _Family: No mother, father who is rarely around. Lives with an aunt? cousin? Mito and a great grandmother._

 _Does not know written Japanese or anything about Japanese culture._

 _Claims to have arrived in our world yesterday when he woke up on the street by the gorilla villain. He fought the villain "for fun" and not necessarily to be heroic._

 _Also claims to be a 'Hunter', which he equates to being a Hero though it is uncertain what being a Hunter entails exactly. He did mention that Hunters are not required to help people however. He has a 'Hunter license' that he showed me._

 _Sorry it isn't much, Yagi. I'd really appreciate it if you could ask him more about himself tonight and tomorrow. I should be able to take him off your hands by tomorrow evening._

 _Thanks again,_

 _Naomasa_

Although the information was nice to have, it really didn't tell All Might anything significant about his charge that Naomasa hadn't already informed him of yesterday at the station. They were effectively going into the situation of how to deal with an alien kid blind.

Next the blond checked the time on his phone; it read 10:51 AM. He let out a sigh. This was going to be a long day. The thin man stood back up and aimlessly began walking around the strip mall gazing at random stores and cringed at the hero store that had a huge inflatable All Might out in front. He wasn't looking for Gon per se, but would be relieved to find him nonetheless. It wasn't long before something caught his interest though.

There was a large crowd ahead, bunched together outside of a clothing store. The people were muttering to each other and Toshinori could hear angry yelling coming from that direction. He began to get a sinking feeling in his stomach as he quickened his pace to see what was going on. The blond man was unable to see through the mass of people, so he stood up on a bench to get a better view of what was going on.

The feeling he couldn't shake had been correct, because there was Gon standing in the center with a large man holding the boy in a headlock. He was clearly a hostage. Toshinori felt his hands clench into fists, kicking himself for being so negligent. He was never letting the kid out of his sight again!

There were three other villains standing close by, all looking like rebellious punks with awful fashion sense. The one with the worst orange mohawk All Might had ever seen was holding a cash register in his arms, probably stolen from the clothing store they were situated in front of. One held a long pipe like a sword (did he get that from the trash or something?). The last was addressing the crowd that had gathered.

"Attention all, we are Team Reservoir Dogs!" the punk wearing sunglasses bellowed with bravado. "We're a new villain team and you better remember us! I am Blue, my mohawk friend is Green, the one with the weapon is Red, and our final member is Yellow!"

All four of the members of the group roared in approval of each other. The crowd displayed mixed emotions: some fascination, others bemusement, and a few worry.

"Now all you civvies gotta do is move out of our way and we'll be gone," Blue continued with a grin. "Or else Yellow will snap this kid's neck!"

The large man, yellow, made a threatening motion by jerking Gon off balance but the small boy remained unfazed, to his credit. If anything the boy looked confused, but definitely not worried. This eased Toshinori's anxiety, but not by much.

The crowed looked around uncertainly, not sure if they should just let the petty criminals go or do something about it. Toshinori saw some discretely calling the police and heroes, but it seemed that most people were suffering from the bystander effect ***** ; it was unlikely anyone in the crowd was actually going to help the boy. All Might sighed. He didn't want to have to use up his precious minutes as All Might to stop such petty criminals but he couldn't just leave the kid like that.

Just as he was about to step off the bench and go find a hidden place to transform, he heard a loud thud and the crowd began yelling and gasping. Toshinori snapped his attention back to the the villains and Gon. The villain who had been giving the monologue was firmly imprinted in the brick wall of the clothing store's facade, his body twitching in shock. Back in the center, the other three villains stood with their eyes wide and mouths open as Gon stood with a blank look on his face, palm extended outward in the direction of the villain who had been flung into the wall.

Oh, Toshinori thought, the kid is fine. It was really the villains he should have been worrying about.

The petty punks regained their senses and began to advance on the small green haired boy who had so far been quiet and demure. However, Gon was done being complacent. He grabbed onto the wrist of the large man holding him in a vice grip and easily pried the meaty arm off of himself. Yellow, the large man, protested, but was soon begging the boy to let him go as Gon began to spin the man around by his arm. The big man felt his feet leave the ground as a child about 1/3 of his size spun around in a circle a few times before releasing. Yellow went flying straight into his other two teammates, knocking all three of them to the ground. The two skinny villains had no chance and were knocked unconscious as their heads hit the pavement and a heavy body bore down on them. Yellow was still able to stand back up, though hesitantly, as he was still dizzy from being thrown around.

"You shitty brat," he growled. "You'll pay for this!"

The large man charged at the small boy, but Gon easily moved out of the way of an angry punch and issued his own counter attack. His fist nailed Yellow right under the jaw and sent him flying back a few feet before landing roughly on the ground. It was a clean KO.

The crowd began to clap and cheer for the boy as he bent down to pick up the battered cash register and place it back in the waiting arms of the store owner, who had run outside in an attempt to chase down the thieves.

Toshinori began to push his way through the dispersing crowd and finally managed to make it to the boy amidst a few others who had come over to congratulate the boy for dismantling the villains. The boy was smiling sheepishly at the attention when Toshinori put a hand on his shoulder.

"Let's get out of here, Gon," the blond man spoke, jerking his head towards the parking lot. As an after thought he added, "You handled the situation well."

The green haired boy beamed at Yagi and detached himself from the people who had surrounded him. The two made their way back to the car, Gon enthusiastically talking about the clothes he had bought, sirens blaring in the distance and quickly approaching. Toshinori briefly wondered if they should stay so the police could get a statement from Gon, but figured someone in the crowd had recorded the whole thing. The green haired boy had acted in self defense so there would be no charges against him anyways.

Once they had pulled out onto the road, Toshinori began to contemplate to himself. He knew how to tell the difference between a quirk and raw strength, and this boy clearly exhibited the latter. After all, Toshinori himself had once been a quirkless boy with admirable natural strength before he inherited One for All.

"You're very strong for not having a quirk," Yagi complimented the boy in the passenger seat. "Especially for your age."

Gon was startled by the sudden compliment, but smiled. "I'm glad you believe me, the detective didn't when I told him I don't have one. There's no such thing as a quirk where I'm from," Gon replied.

Toshinori filed that interesting bit of information away into his brain but didn't say anything else for the moment as the rest of the short drive passed in comfortable silence. Once they arrived back at Yagi's home, the boy ran upstairs with his bag of clothes and Yagi let himself fall onto his living room couch as he read a new text from Naomasa.

 _Hey Yagi something came up and I need you to keep the kid for one more day. There was a famous journalist murdered early this morning and if the news corporation doesn't get answers soon they're going to be slandering our asses for the next month. Sorry!_

Toshinori frowned, but wasn't too concerned about the change of plans. Gon was a friendly person and often did all the talking for the both of them. Just one more day would probably be fi-

Oh shit, Toshinori jolted with a sudden realization. He was supposed to be teaching at UA tomorrow. What was he going to do with Gon?

* * *

 *** Bystander Effect: W** **hen the presence of others discourages an individual from intervening in an emergency situation. Everyone thinks someone else will be the one to step in and help, so nobody does anything.**

 **Not the most exciting chapter, but a necessary one. Things will get interesting quick in the next chapter as Killua faces Stain though!**

 **Team Reservoir Dogs make their first appearance later in BnHA, but all they do is rob a convenience store and get dismantled by Overhaul. I figured they probably have a history of petty crime and went with it.**

 **On another note, Gon and Killua are NOT going to be telling everyone they're from a different world. The few who know now are the only ones who will be privy to this information...for a while anyways.**

 **As All Might mentions at the end of this chapter, Gon will be making an appearance at UA in his next chapter. I haven't completely decided how it's going to go yet, so if you guys have anything you'd like to see happen with Gon and the UA students/teachers I'd love to hear about it and I'll take it into consideration when writing the chapter. Please keep in mind that Gon is 13 and cannot 'officially' become a UA student though!**


	4. Chapter IV

CHAPTER IV

"Show yourself coward, I can feel your bloodlust from here," the Hero Killer commanded to the seemingly empty air of the alleyway.

The villain's eyes were focused in the general direction of the killing intent he felt, but it was radiating outwards so much that he was unable to pinpoint the exact location it originated from. He didn't have to wait long though; a small figure slowly stepped out from behind a large garbage container, partially silhouetted by the light coming from the street behind him. The villain was underwhelmed and a little confused at what he was seeing. Small and thin stature, messy white hair, doll like features, and large blue eyes radiating bloodlust. It was just a kid; he looked delicate and innocent aside from those soulless, evil eyes. It was pretty off putting to say the least. Nevertheless, the boy wasn't a target of the Hero Killer.

"Get lost kid, I'm only after heroes right now," the man spoke dismissively, but he didn't relax a muscle.

"Well I'm in the mood to kill someone," the creepy boy replied with a strangely disturbing expression on his face. "So I think I'll stay."

"Look," the Hero Killer said, trying to reason with the boy. "I'm a busy guy. Heroes won't kill themselves unfortunately. I don't have time for this. Run along before I-"

The older man never got a chance to finish as the white haired kid disappeared into thin air, halting the man mid-sentence. His instincts were suddenly screaming at him to _move_ as he caught a glimpse of the kid in his peripheral vision. A hot pain seared through his side as he leapt away, the kid's extended arm now covered in a small spattering of the Hero Killer's blood.

"Good reflexes," the boy nonchalantly complimented, "I was aiming for your kidney."

"What the _fuck_ , kid?" the noseless man exclaimed. He'd met his fair share of strange people before but he wasn't sure if he'd ever met a kid this creepy. He was lucky the wound he had just received was superficial; the boy was aiming to incapacitate him.

"Kidneys are worth a lot of money after all," the boy dawdled on. "And I could really go for some sweets right now. Like a lot of sweets."

And with that odd statement, the white haired child launched himself at the Hero Killer. They traded a few hand to hand blows but the older man was still unwilling to fight seriously against a kid who had nothing to do with heroes. It wasn't until the boy threw him over his small shoulder and slammed him onto the ground that the Hero Killer was finally annoyed enough to fight back.

"All right kid you're asking for it," he growled as he threw three small knives at the boy. The pale boy easily dodged two and the third managed to graze his cheek but that was all. The knives embedded themselves in the wall behind the child.

The villain decided the best strategy would be to just paralyze the boy, give him a short lecture on convictions, and leave. Although the Hero Killer was just as willing to terminate villains without real conviction as he was heroes, he was not as fast to pass judgement on children who were still young and impressionable. In order to change a society, you had to strike the hearts of the children and teens after all. Adults were too set in their ways and not liable to see the error in their thinking, but young people were still able to change their ways with the right guidance.

The noseless man made a move to get behind the boy and grab the knife that had drawn blood but he was intercepted by said boy, who was now brandishing clawed fingertips. The kid was giving him a bloodthirsty, feral grin. What the hell was wrong with this boy?

The older man was given no more time to think as he was forced to duck under a jab. He lashed out with his own in return but the boy bent backwards to avoid the knife the Hero Killer had quickly drawn from a sheath on his side. The villain tried to sweep the boy's feet from under him but the white haired kid gracefully let his momentum take him into a back handspring and he landed a few feet away from the older man.

The boy jumped right back in and the villain was forced on the defensive. The pale kid threw a series of quick punches before launching himself into a spinning kick aimed at the Hero Killer's neck. The man blocked the kick with his forearm and grunted, not expecting so much power to be contained in such a small body.

The blocked kick left the boy's defenses open, and the man finally got a chance to counterattack. He managed to land a knee in the kid's gut, and simultaneously shot out an arm, his knife seeking flesh. Despite having the air forced out of his lungs, the boy was still able to narrowly avoid the knife and leap backwards a few paces to catch his breath.

The Hero Killer took note of the blood dripping down the kid's pale cheek from the cut he'd suffered and formulated a quick plan. Straightening himself back up and sheathing his weapon, he addressed his young opponent in an attempt to disrupt his focus.

"You're wasting your potential," the villain berated out of nowhere. The boy furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, a small spark of intelligence surfacing in his dulled eyes.

"Senseless, petty murder is despicable," the Hero Killer lectured.

The boy opened his mouth to retort, but in his distraction the larger man had closed the gap between the two and pinned the boy's smaller arms to his sides before he knew it was happening.

The man leaned in, tongue seeking the thin trail of blood on the boy's cheek. But before he could make contact, he was suddenly dazed as the pale kid slammed the back of his head into the Hero Killer's face. The man let out a surprised grunt and involuntarily loosened his grip, allowing the boy to wretch himself away.

Before either could attack again, an unknown voice interrupted the fight.

"Hey! What's the commotion back here?" A harsh male voice pierced through the thin alleyway. The two turned their heads in unison to see who was interrupting them. It was a policeman, standing at the entrance of the alleyway and blocking their escape to the street. The officer's eyes widened once he took in his surroundings. His eyes flickered between the crazy looking man who seemed to be assaulting a child and the discarded body of the hero laying face down on the street. The policeman visibly swallowed, evidently on edge. He drew his gun and slowly began advancing towards the two standing amidst the carnage.

"Step away from the boy," the officer commanded, but his voice quivered slightly at the end.

The Hero Killer felt a twinge of annoyance seeing as the policeman had automatically blamed him, the adult, for the situation and not even considered that the child was the one to initiate the fight. Then again, the villain was the one who killed the hero, so that assumption was probably the most logical one.

The villain glanced down at the boy next to him and noticed that his previously soulless eyes were suddenly bright, filled with annoyance much like the Hero Killer's own. The noseless man heard the kid swear under his breath before he suddenly blurred in the direction of the officer. The Hero Killer was just barely able to track the boy's movements as he traveled almost instantaneously across the expanse of the alleyway. The next thing the villain knew the policeman's head was separated from his body, which began to spurt blood like a fountain. The disembodied head fell to the stone floor with a faint thud and the body collapsed, the gun clattering loudly onto the ground.

The boy appeared back by the Hero Killer's side, his face lightly spattered with fresh blood. His eyes were sharp and alert now, a stark contrast to his previous state.

"Way to ruin my fun," the boy grumbled. "I like being able to walk around the city freely so I can't let the police connect crime to me." He shoved his hands into his pockets moodily, practically a completely different person than he was a minute ago. Catlike cerulean eyes met crimson as the boy leveled the hero Killer with a stare for a moment and said, "Good fight old man, but I'm out. Not trying to get caught." The boy broke the stare and turned to walk deeper into the alleyway which met a different street.

The Hero Killer blinked in consternation. Never mind the fact that he just witnessed the boy murder someone, something about this whole situation seemed eerily familiar to the red eyed villain. The kid just gave off a certain vibe that he couldn't shake. Was it his looks? His ruthless fighting style? His bored attitude? Maybe it was the way he just effortlessly beheaded a law enforcement officer. Oh that was definitely it.

The boy had made it to the edge of the alley and was about to turn the corner but the Hero Killer called out to him, "Wait!"

The kid paused, but didn't look back.

"It's you, isn't it?" the older man asked. "The serial killer who beheads his victims and leaves without a trace of ever being there in the first place."

The boy tensed, almost imperceptibly, but the Hero Killer still noticed it.

"You're The Ghost."

The boy stood still for a moment before the tension left his body and he merely shrugged in attempt to brush the accusation off. "Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. You gonna do anything about it?" he challenged.

Before the older man could respond, loud sirens pierced through the air, growing louder by the second. No doubt other policemen were headed for their current location.

"Let's get out of here and have a little conversation," the noseless man suggested.

The boy didn't reply, just made a small beckoning motion with his hand, and immediately took off at a sprint. The Hero Killer followed close behind.

The policemen arrived just a few seconds after, having gotten a backup call from an officer at this location. However, the only things they found at the scene were the blooded and mangled bodies of the decapitated officer and the hero who was laying by a pool of his own blood. Not a single trace of the killers remained.

* * *

Killua situated himself on the roof of an abandoned warehouse in the old and forgotten slums of Tokyo. No self respecting person walked these streets, they were ruled by lowly gangs and small time villains. Police didn't even bother patrolling the area anymore, figuring it was more trouble than it was worth. In other words, a perfect convening point for wanted criminals.

The small assassin sized up the man sitting across from him curiously, noticing the man doing the same to him. Their bodies served as physical antithesis to each other. Killua was small, pale, and doll like while the Hero Killer was tall, dark, and marred. His hunched back and deformed face told many a tale of pain and suffering. Killua showed no such signs, or at least he hid them well. Years of training, fighting, and abuse left his body scarred all over, but many of the marks upon his skin had faded with time or blended in with his skin. The Hero Killer wore his tragedies on his sleeve while Killua hid his away from the world inside his mind.

"What's your name?" Killua finally asked out loud, breaking the tense silence between the two.

"I am Stain the Hero Killer," the older man replied, a distinctly proud note in his voice.

The pale boy rolled his eyes. "Well obviously, you're all over the news. That's not what I'm asking though. What's your _name_?"

Stain was taken aback by the boy's attitude, and wasn't sure what to say. Nobody had ever asked his real name before, not during his time as Stain at least. Everyone else just asked... _why_.

Killua gave the shocked man an exasperated look. "It's not a complicated question. I'll go first, my name's Killua. What's yours?"

Still confused, the Hero Killer narrowed his eyes at the boy. "You seemed so concerned about keeping your identity a secret before, why are you revealing yourself to me now?"

The boy leaned back and rested his palms on the dirty floor. "Simple, you're the most wanted criminal in Tokyo right now. You're the last person that would ever snitch to the police on me," the boy spoke in a bored time.

"I could be arrested and reveal your identity to the police," Stain countered, still baffled by the small boy. "Not that I'd allow myself to be captured in the first place."

"You still have your own creed despite being a sociopath," Killua replied easily. "You wouldn't reveal someone who's practically your comrade, that would go against everything you stand for."

Stain raised an eyebrow at the comrade comment (they had just met and the boy had already tried to kill him after all), but ignored it in favor for being slightly offended at the other part of the boy's response. "I'm not a sociopath, everything I do is in the name of justice."

"That's exactly what a sociopath would say," the pale boy deadpanned.

"You're not exactly a saint yourself, _Ghost_ ," the Hero Killer spat back, irritated with how easily a child was insulting him.

"Never said I was," Killua replied lazily. "This is all just a job for me though."

The older man blinked in disbelief. The boy had killed 8 people in the past 5 days, including the officer a few minutes ago. That kind of thing didn't happen unless a killer was going on a rampage. No assassin for hire was that reckless. Or so he thought. This _was_ a kid he was dealing with though, which changed things. The Hero Killer was used to dealing with professional heroes and the scum of the villain world. He didn't even know they last time he'd interacted with a child; it was bizarre to say the least.

"You attacked me because you were throwing a tantrum," Stain reminded the boy.

"A _tantrum_?" Killua exclaimed in horror. "I was just frustrated, seriously..."

"That's exactly what a child throwing a tantrum would say," the Hero Killer replied smoothly, turning Killua's own words against him.

"Fuck off, I'm not a kid. I'm thirteen," Killua grumbled in defeat.

"That's literally a child," Stain reminded him.

"At least I'm not old as dirt like you are."

"Thirty one is hardly old as dirt."

Killua just scoffed as if to say yeah right. He was actually surprised the Hero Killer was only thirty one. He seemed like he was fifty or something.

A short silence washed over the two, neither sure what to say next. Stain ended up taking the initiative, a very big issue on his mind.

"Tell me, why do you kill?" the hunchback asked the boy. "You say it is all for a job. Do you do it for money?" If the boy was vain enough to commit senseless murder just for a pretty penny Stain would gladly put him out of his misery. Greedy heroes and villains alike were targets of his purge.

Killua snorted. "As _if_. I'm being blackmailed."

That was a new one, the Hero Killer thought to himself in surprise. "What kind of scum feels the need to blackmail a thirteen year old child for such high profile assassinations?" the Hero Killer asked curiously. This was the first occurrence during his time as a self righteous villain that he wasn't able to easily categorize someone's situation and motives as admirable or despicable. This boy was unusual indeed.

Killua gave the man a skeptical glance. "I'd hardly call my targets high profile. Big deal some journalists and information brokers are dead. It's boring honestly."

"You're dodging the question," Stain pointed out.

Killua threw his hands up in defeat. "Fine, I was kidnapped. Can't leave until I kill all the people they want dead. They're _morons_ but I don't have much of a choice. They're my most direct way to get home," the boy spoke with self loathing. Killua spent his entire life under the thumb of his parents and older brothers; all he wanted was to be his own person. His current situation was just a bitter reminder of how powerless he was in the grand scheme of things.

"What is being held against you that is so important you can't just leave?" the older man asked. "With your skill in evasion that shouldn't be a problem whatsoever. You should be taking your life into your own hands and not let others dictate it for you. Especially when it involves convictions you don't believe in."

"It's complicated," the pale boy grumbled in annoyance. "I could easily take them in a fight but then I wouldn't be able to go home."

"So they're using a quirk to keep you here," Stain inferred.

Killua let out a sigh. "Technically. My home is isolated from the rest of the world, somewhere in the far north. Since I was...teleported here, I don't actually know how to return. The people who brought me here are the only ones who know how to send me back." It was partially a lie, but not too much of a stretch. Killua wasn't trying to alienate himself from this world since he had no idea how people would react to the truth. He had no desire to be captured and turned into some kind of specimen or zoo exhibit after all.

"Try threatening the quirk user's life," Stain suggested. "Convictions are best conveyed through forceful actions."

"I _would_ ," the white haired boy replied with annoyance. "But I've never even seen him. As idiotic as they are, they know to keep the quirk user away from me."

"So what are you going to do about it?" the older man asked. There was no easy solution, but there were still choices to be made. He hoped that the boy made the right ones. It would be unfortunate to have to kill such a promising talent.

"I'm going to keep playing their game for now," Killua answered. "Kill the targets faster than they can give me new ones until they're drawing a blank and take my opportunity to get out of here. If that doesn't work then I'll defect and have to find my own way home."

Stain was disappointed with that answer. "That's an awful plan," he informed the boy flatly. Whoever was keeping the boy would see his talent and never let him go if they realized just how effective he could be.

The boy sputtered for a moment, offended by his fellow serial killer's brutal honesty. "Well what am I supposed to do?" the boy asked defensively. "I've never been to Japan before five days ago. I don't know anything about this society or the people here."

"Surely you know _something_ about the culture here," Stain replied in disbelief.

"Only what I've read online the past couple days," Killua huffed. "There's no such thing as a hero or a villain where I'm from."

The Hero Killer sat in stunned silence for a moment. The concept of heroes and villains was international. Even developing countries often had a loose sense of societal good and bad. Either this boy was from a place so lawless the only thing that mattered was personal gain, or he was from a land where everyone coexisted without conflict. Although the idea of a utopia was tantalizing, Stain was easily able to judge by the boy's actions and words that he came from the former scenario.

The noseless man let out a short, ironic laugh. It wasn't a pleasant sound. "This entire time I've been judging you based on the cultural norms and fallacies of the typical Hero/Villain society," he told the boy. "And I was at a loss as to why you didn't fit into any particular category. To think that you're just an outsider..." He shook his head. "Tell me, what is it like where you're from?"

Killua rubbed his chin, contemplating for a minute. "Survival of the fittest," the boy finally decided on.

The older man nodded and mentally congratulated himself on guessing correctly.

"Japan is too soft," the Hero Killer said. "You'll be labelled as a monster with that kind of ideology here. Nothing more than a selfish villain."

Killa's eyebrows knitted together. "But the 'heroes' are just as selfish. They enforce strict laws and if you don't follow them you're automatically evil. Aren't they just hypocrites?" Back home, law enforcement was often powerless to stop strong individuals and groups, and wisely stayed out of their business. Everyone fended for themselves and that's just the way it was. It was much more dangerous, but also much more free.

A smile quirked at the edges of Stain's mouth. "Correct, heroes are hypocrites who refuse to see the error of their ways. That's where my purpose stems from. If this society is going to have heroes then they should be true heroes with pure intentions, not the twisted kind with their own selfish intentions." The noseless man leaned in closer to the boy across from him. "Perhaps you'd like to join me. We appear to have similar views on heroes." With both of them working together, they may be nigh impossible to put down. Although using a child would leave a slightly bitter taste in his mouth, Stain could justify that the boy was clearly mature enough to understand the truth of this ugly society. He would be serving a justified cause.

The pale kid just stared back incredulously. "No thanks, I'm not really into fighting battles that have nothing to do with me," he finally replied. "Besides, I was trying to distance myself from a life of killing before I got to this wo- Japan, I mean." Killua cursed internally at his slip up, but luckily the serial killer across from him didn't seem to notice.

"That's a shame, but I can respect your convictions," the Hero Killer acquiesced. "However, should you decide to turn against me, I will not hesitate to end you along with the rest," he ended with menacingly.

The pale boy just gave a 'Hn', apparently not intimidated, and rocked forward to gracefully rise to his feet. He brushed off his hands and clothes of the dust they'd collected and made his way over to the edge of the roof.

"Nice to know there's someone not as idiotic as the heroes or the morons I'm stuck with here," Killua spoke, turning back to look at the Hero Killer. "But I've got other stuff to do today. Maybe I'll see you again later."

The boy placed a foot on the ledge of the building in preparation to leap, but Stain spoke up before he left.

"Akaguro Chizome," the Hero Killer said, finally giving his name. It tasted foreign on his tongue, a name not spoken for a long time. It was a thing he had given up with his humanity long ago. But perhaps a small part of that person still remained under the self imposed justice-seeking villain Stain.

The white haired boy merely gave a slight incline of his head before jumping off the roof and disappearing from sight. However, Chizome did manage to catch a small smile on the boy's side profile as he descended back to earth.

* * *

Killua was back to roaming the streets, though this time he was lost in thought for a different reason. He hadn't expected to run into the infamous Hero Killer, he hadn't expected to get caught so soon, and he especially hadn't expected to have a meaningful conversation with the aforementioned serial killer. It was clearly a new experience for both of them, but it also wasn't an unpleasant one. Maybe both of them were just lonely in such a cut and dried society. Either way, Killua reasoned, making allies in a foreign place was a smart move. Especially if he ever decided he was tired of catering to the League and wanted to find his own way home. Luckily he'd memorized Chizome's nen signature so he'd be able to find him again when he wanted to do so.

Nen wasn't the right word choice, Killua corrected himself. This world was strange, everyone here had a life force, but it wasn't the same as nen per se. It was more just a latent aura that nobody had any knowledge of. They all relied on their quirks that they inherited genetically, having no reason to use their own life force. It was probably safer that way too, the boy reasoned. It was just a strange concept to him.

Killua was pulled out of his musings as the phone in his pocket buzzed. He quickly turned on the screen and checked the text he'd just received. It was from the boy who currently had his phone.

 _I'm so sorry about this again! Let's meet at 4:30 in the same place I ran into you this morning. I hope that isn't a big inconvenience for you!_

Killua let out a long sigh. 4:30 was pretty late. No doubt Tomura was going to blow up his phone all day for Killua not responding. Oh well, at least he hadn't saved the manchild's real name in his phone. Tomura had managed to make an infamous name for himself last week during his failed attempt to attack a hero school and kill the #1 hero. Killua had found out that after reading what information he could find on the League of Villains online (some of the articles were actually written by the journalist who was his first kill here) and laughed his ass off. If the green haired student saw a text from someone called Shigaraki Tomura on his phone no doubt he'd go to the police. Killua smirked to himself. It was a good thing he had no respect for the manchild and saved his contact as 'Asshole'.

Not having anything else to do until 4:30 Killua decided it was time to do something he'd been thinking about ever since he'd arrived in Toyko. He'd been busy the other days collecting information and planning his assassinations but without his phone to contact Shigaraki or search for information he had no responsibilities for the rest of the morning and afternoon. It was time for a sweet shop binge.

Killua may be a ruthless assassin, but that never deterred him from his childishly insatiable sweet tooth. When he was 8 he spent the millions he'd made at Heaven's Arena on cake, chocolate, and other sweet snacks. That money lasted him up until the Hunter Exam and unfortunately after that all the money he made went into funding his travels with Gon so there was little room in the budget for his sweet tooth. He'd led a short, lonely life for the most part, but sweets had always been there to comfort him whenever he needed it. Gon and Alluka were great and all, but chocolate balls were really something else.

Unfortunately, the pale boy didn't have millions to spend on sweets today, but he did have a sizable amount of money given to him by Kurogiri. The portal user had explained that the man behind the voice on the screen served as their benefactor, having amassed a large amount of wealth over the many years he'd been alive. He provided for the League of Villains monetarily. Killua wasn't going to question it; it allowed him some freedom to buy things and do what he wanted during the day.

The white haired boy quickly spotted a small bakery across the street and made a beeline for the door. The young girl at the counter was startled by how fast he made his way to the counter and ordered without even looking at the menu.

"I'd like a slice of every cake you have," Killua said with an excited look on his face. To the girl's credit she only paused for a moment before complying with her adorable young customer's request.

Around 4 PM Killua was relaxing in an armchair at a cozy cafe. He let out a contented sound and allowed himself to bask in the moment for a little while. He'd visited five shops throughout the day and each was amazing in its own way. The first shop had been cakes, the second pastries, the third and fourth chocolate, and the last had been a traditional Japanese sweet shop that was a pleasant new experience. This had definitely been the best use of his time since he'd arrived in Tokyo.

Occasionally the phone in his possession would buzz throughout the day as the real phone's owner received texts. There was one from his mom and a couple from a group chat called '1A Mad Lads'. Killua had no qualms over invading others' privacy and shamelessly read the messages as they came in.

The boy's mom was just informing him of dinner so it was pretty mundane. The group chat, however, had a lot of messages that required context Killua didn't know to understand.

 ** _1A Mad_ _Lads_**

 _Alien Queen: omg this kid is so precious i want to protect him forever_

 _Invisigirl: ikr i want to know how anyone could abandon this kid out on the streets alone_

 _Shitty Hair: its super unmanly ill beat their asses if i ever find the people who did this to him_

 _Whey: yo count me in bro_

 _LORD EXPLOSION MURDER: did you dumbasses ever stop to think that maybe the brat ran away instead?_

 _Falco: That's plausible. He doesn't seem to be troubled about being far from home._

 _Teacher's Pet: Please refrain from using your phones during class everyone! You're here to learn!_

 _LORD EXPLOSION MURDER: nobody gives a fuck glasses_

 _Shitty Hair: cmon man no need to be rude to him_

 _Shitty Hair: oh shit guys i just got caught by teach pray for me_

 _Alien Queen: lol rip_

All Killua could discern was that it was some kind of class group chat. Other than that he really had no idea; even their chat names were inside jokes that he wasn't privy to. The pale boy considered sending a message from the green haired student's phone to see what his code name was but decided against it. That was going a little too far.

The small assassin stood up and stretched before throwing out the many boxes of trash he'd managed to accumulate from his binge eating today. He slid his hands into his pockets and made his way out onto the street, heading in the direction of the meeting place the student had arranged.

* * *

Midoriya Izuku frantically checked the time as the train slowed to a stop. It was 4:29. Great, he was about to be late. All Might had wanted to talk to him after class and he couldn't just refuse, so now he was scrambling to make it to the meeting place in time. He also had to turn down the kid with All Might who wanted to hang out with him after school. The boy's pitiful eyes when he got rejected were still fresh on Midoriya's mind. So overall, not a good day.

As soon as the doors slid open the green haired boy took off at a sprint, making his way back to the spot where he'd run into the other boy earlier this morning. A pang of guilt shot through Midoriya as he realized he was inconveniencing the boy even more by being late to their meeting. After all, UA Hero students didn't get out of school until 4:10 and most other schools were finished around an hour earlier. The short glimpse Izuku had gotten of the boy's face had given the impression that he was a middle schooler, so the boy had probably been waiting over an hour after school to get his phone back.

The green haired One for All user took a sharp turn around the corner that led to the street where he had run into the boy, and immediately spotted the pale white haired boy standing out of the way of traffic on the sidewalk. Strange, the boy wasn't in a school uniform. Maybe he went home and changed first? Oh well it didn't really matter.

The boy had spotted Midoriya and began walking in his direction as Izuku himself slowed down to a fast walk. He was barely breathing hard, and internally thanked All Might for his training. It would have been extremely embarrassing to walk up to the younger looking boy completely out of breath.

The two males stopped in front of each other and the white haired boy held out Midoriya's phone in his hand without saying anything. Izuku fumbled to get the boy's phone out of his pocket and to his horror it slipped out of his hand in his haste. He reached out his other hand to grab it but was half a second too late. It felt like slow motion as he watched the glass screen on its collision course for the cold, hard concrete down below.

Suddenly, the phone stopped in mid air as a small, pale hand had taken a hold of the free falling device. Midoriya glanced up in surprise. He hadn't even seen the boy move. The white haired boy just raised an eyebrow at the clumsy UA student.

Izuku straightened himself back up, his cheeks burning, and accepted his phone back from the boy.

"S-sorry again," Midoriya said, averting his gaze from the boy's piercing blue irises. "You got a lot of texts during the day, it was probably a big inconvenience for you to not have your phone today."

The smaller boy raised his other eyebrow. "Did you read them?"

"N-no! I wouldn't do something like that!" Izuku exclaimed. "I did notice that all of them were from the same person though," he admitted.

The boy hit the power button on his phone and skimmed the notifications. Then he shrugged. "It's nobody important, just some asshole who won't leave me alone," the boy spoke dismissively.

Midoriya just laughed nervously, not sure what to say. The person that kept spamming the boy's phone was saved under the name 'Asshole' so clearly the boy didn't have a very high opinion of him or her. Izuku did feel a tinge of guilt for lying though. He'd actually read some of the messages the boy received as the notifications popped up originally, but then his moral compass kicked in and he realized he was invading someone else's privacy and stopped checking. The texts had been a little strange, but nothing concerning. They had just been about a new game the sender had for the pale boy to play. Said it was going to be the most interesting one yet. When no response came, the sender got angry and started cursing and spamming the boy's phone, but luckily Midoriya had turned it to silent. Aizawa sensei would have flipped out on him like he did on Kirishima in class today when the red haired boy was caught texting during class.

"Well, thanks for bringing my phone back I guess," the white haired boy continued, clearly not sure what else to say.

"Yeah no p-problem," Izuku replied awkwardly.

"Okay, bye then," the boy said, taking a step back. Clearly he wasn't a people person.

The boy nodded succinctly and made his escape, clearly not wanting to prolong their off kilter conversation any longer. Midoriya watched him go, committing the boy's small frame to memory. He just had the gut feeling that this mysterious boy would be be important some day.

* * *

Killua knew the boy had read his texts; his guilty face was like an open book to the perceptive Zoldyck. Luckily it wasn't a big deal, and Killua was relieved to find that Tomura hadn't send him any explicit details of his next target. He had purposefully been vague, fishing for Killua to ask him all about his next target that the manchild seemed to be so excited about. When the small assassin didn't reply for hours, Tomura had, as per usual, lost his temper and started swearing at the boy through text.

Killua sent back the quick excuse that his phone was dead and he didn't have a charger with him. It was complete BS and Tomura would call him out on it, but the white haired boy didn't really care. He began to make his way back to the League of Villains' bar where he had a small bedroom upstairs.

Tomura texted back within two minutes with a long berating message that Killua didn't even bother to read. He sent back a middle finger emoji and asked, W _ho's the target?_

The decay quirk user replied quickly, sending a single name. _Kesagiriman_.

Killua blinked, having no idea who that was. He texted back, _Am I supposed to know who that is? Because I don't._

Tomura wrote back, _He's a pro hero dumbass. This is your real test._

The pale assassin felt a small smile creep its way onto his face. _Finally_.

* * *

 **Kesagiriman is a manga character from the Overhaul Arc that hasn't shown up in the anime yet. He plays a very minor role in the manga but I have a specific purpose for him in mind.**

 **Stain may seem a little OOC in this chapter, but to be fair we never get to see a real conversation with him that doesn't involve a death match or attempted murder. I imagine he'd be a lot more willing to listen to someone who isn't a hero he's trying to kill, like how he gave Shigaraki a chance to explain himself in canon. He's also got a soft spot for kids. Maybe not a soft spot, but a belief that children have yet to be corrupted by society, I suppose (like how he wasn't going to kill Iida until he started screaming about revenge). This is why he gives Killua a chance and doesn't immediately pass judgement on him. (There's also a tiny Dragon Ball Z Abridged reference in their meeting, but I don't expect anyone to catch it. It's something Cell says to Piccolo.)**

 **In the HxH world everyone goes by their first names for the most part. Killua and Gon continue that in the BnHA world despite the fact that everyone goes by their respectful last names or hero/villain names.**

 **The group chat names should be pretty self explanatory but if you don't recognize them yet you'll just have to wait.**

 **Also! Morals are starting to be mentioned, and considering that's what the title of the fic is based off of, we'll be seeing more of that conflict as the story progresses.**


	5. Chapter V

CHAPTER V

Toshinori Yagi sighed as he flicked on his right turn signal. He was driving to work today, relishing in the first bit of alone time he'd gotten in the past couple days. Not to say he hated having someone else around the house, it was just that Gon's adventurous and effervescent nature was a handful to say the least. He wasn't used to having others around his home, especially not energetic young boys.

Currently, Toshinori was heading to a staff meeting called by Nezu, and Naomasa had informed Yagi that he would be there as well. All Might was a little apprehensive about it. Not the meeting itself particularly, but rather the fact that he would have to ask the principal for permission to bring Gon to U.A. with him afterwards. Which would then require Nezu asking him about the boy, and the fact that Gon was a completely unknown variable did not bode well for his admittance to the school grounds considering the recent track record of break ins from less than savory characters.

Yagi had considered leaving the boy home alone for the day, but quickly ruled that out as a terrible idea considering he seemed to attract trouble and was overly curious. That would also be very irresponsible on Toshinori's part with the boy's unknown origins. Especially after the...questionable conversation they'd had yesterday. Yagi thought back on it warily.

All Might picked himself up from his living room couch and walked up the stairs to tell Gon that he would be staying with Yagi for another day after receiving Naomasa's text.

He knocked on the boy's door, and could hear shifting as the green haired boy quickly came to open it. Big, curious eyes focused themselves on the gaunt blond's face.

"Naomasa texted me and said he's caught up in a new case, so you'll be staying with me tomorrow too," Yagi informed the boy.

"Okay, that sounds good!" Gon chirped, but his face soon turned into one of concern as he asked, "But don't you have work to do, Yagi-san?"

Toshinori grunted. "Yes, I'm supposed to be teaching tomorrow, but I'll ask the principal if you can come with me," he replied slowly, not quite sure if that was such a great idea. It would be a mess trying to keep Toshinori and All Might separate if the boy was with him all day. He'd be able to figure it out though. He didn't want to leave Gon at home alone; the boy would probably wander off and find more trouble. Probably an entire mafia group at this point.*

Gon's entire face lit up at Toshinori's words. "I've never been to a school before! That sounds like fun!"

The blond rubbed the back of his neck nervously, hoping that taking the boy to UA wasn't going to backfire in his face. Well, he guessed he should finally ask the boy about himself. It would be incredibly negligent of him to bring a potential threat onto the school grounds. Not that Yagi thought Gon had malicious intent, it was just that he seemed to attract problems considering his track record was a villain encounter every day.

"You mentioned you were home schooled, why was that?" Toshinori opened with. A little abrupt, but seemed to do the trick.

"I grew up on a small island, and there was only one other kid on the entire island," Gon replied, unfazed by the sudden question. "Almost no one lived there permanently, it was mostly just a place for ships to rest on their journeys."

"That sounds lonely," Yagi mused.

Gon moved backwards to sit on the edge of his bed, and hummed. "Not really, I was out in nature a lot with the animals. And I did a lot of fishing!"

"Did you ever leave the island?" Toshinori asked. The boy was naïve, but he did carry himself with a certainty that an island boy who'd never seen a city wouldn't be.

"Un, I left when I was eleven to take the Hunter Exam and after that I traveled the world with Killua for a while," the green haired boy replied with a fond smile.

Eleven was very young to be taking any kind of exam other than the school kind, Yagi mused. Considering what little he had been able to understand of being a Hunter, it probably involved a rigorous exam not meant for children. His guardian didn't have a problem with an eleven year old facing the world by himself? That was concerning.

"Did you leave the island on your own?" the blond couldn't help but ask. Surely someone would have gone with him at the least.

Gon suddenly appeared sheepish. "Well Mito-san didn't really want me to go but I was determined to pass the exam like my dad and then to go find him. That was the reason I wanted to be a Hunter," the boy replied honestly, sort of dodging the question.

Toshinori felt his eyes narrow slightly, taking the boy's avoidance as confirmation. Also, the mention of the boy's father would be the troubled parent situation Naomasa mentioned in his email, Yagi realized. "Did you ever find him? Your father?"

"Yeah!" the boy replied. "Though he was different than I thought he would be. Every once in a while we talk on the phone but I've only seen him in person twice now."

"It's unfortunate that you aren't able to see him more often," Yagi offered his condolences. Internally he was thinking about how the boy's father sounded like a shitty parent if Yagi had ever heard of one. He'd heard vague rumors of Endeavor's...less than noble treatment of his children, but at least the #2 Hero was around.

Gon just shrugged. "It's fine," he said, surprisingly without the passive aggressive tone that usually accompanied those words. "I just didn't know what to do after I found him. It had been my life goal and once it was achieved I felt like there was nothing left to do. So I went home to Whale Island and stayed there for months until yesterday."

The gaunt man nodded, taking notice of the small bit of helplessness that escaped with the boy's words.

"You're only 13," Yagi reminded the boy. "You don't have to have your life figured out yet. By all means you should still be living at home, not travelling the world on your own."

The boy pouted in response. "But I wasn't alone, I had Killua!"

"Was Killua an adult?" Toshinori asked, but had a sinking feeling it wasn't the case.

"Nope, Killua is my age. Actually I'm two months older than him!" Gon exclaimed. "He always helped me out, especially in the beginning when I didn't know much about the rest of the world."

"Did you at least know how to defend yourself before you left Whale Island?" Toshinori pressed weakly, the concern evident in his voice. Honestly, Gon's life sounded like a train wreck in slow motion, the adults in his life just sitting back and allowing it to happen. The little he'd seen of the boy's fighting style had been rather erratic and spoke of the reliance on instinct rather than proper training.

The small boy let out a laugh. "Not really, I just learned along the way. I fought lots of strong people to get stronger myself. Even went to an arena meant just for fighting!"

Ah, so the reproachful feeling Yagi had was justified. There were so many red flags in this conversation that Toshinori didn't even know how to deal with it. He'd have to pass it off to Naomasa...and maybe child services too. He failed to voice any of this to the boy though, and instead just nodded. He wasn't sure if he wanted to know the full extent of Gon's 'adventures'; he wasn't the right person to deal with this. He really had no idea how to handle kids.

There was a slightly awkward silence as Toshinori floundered for something to say. Thankfully, some god above must have noticed the #1 Hero's struggle and sent him a saving grace. The loud ringtone of All Might's phone went off, playing a rock song that Midoriya had personally picked out. Toshinori whipped the phone out of his pocket, grateful for a distraction (he had nothing against Gon but talking to people he didn't know how to interact with was stressful). The caller ID was Nezu, and Toshinori apologized to the boy and scurried away to take the call.

Nezu informed Yagi that there was going to be a staff meeting before school, and that it was about school safety and information gathered on the League of Villains. This brought All Might back to his current situation, as he parked his car and walked through the gates of U.A. heading for the staff meeting room.

The meeting was informative, and All Might felt anger boiling within his stomach when they discussed the Nomu and the League of Villains. Naomasa was the one leading the meeting, but Toshinori felt pity for his friend who looked beyond tired. He had dark circles under his eyes and the strong odor of coffee oozed off the detective. He felt his mind begin to wander as he contemplated what exactly was so bad about the detective's new case that left him that much of a wreck. Yagi snapped his attention back to what Naomasa was actually saying, however, once he mentioned a new concerning development.

"There is also a new serial killer out on the streets, and we have reason to believe he or she is working in tandem with the League of Villains," Tsukauchi spoke solemnly.

"What kind of serial killer are we talking?" Midnight asked cautiously.

"The kind that beheads the victims and disappears without a trace," Tsukauchi replied with a grimace. "There have been three victims so far, and the MO is the same for all of them. These victims are notably outspoken against the League of Villains, thus our tentative inference that this new serial killer, dubbed The Ghost, is working for the League."

The teachers looked taken aback.

"Do you believe this serial killer will target our students?" Principal Nezu asked, his mouth drawn into a hard line.

Naomasa let out a sigh. "It's impossible to tell so far, though currently the targets are all adults. Although it is not certain, I don't believe the students are at risk now."

The rest of the meeting concluded soon after, and All Might made his way over to his detective friend and clapped him on the back.

"You look like you've had a rough couple days," he told Naomasa.

The detective smiled cynically and said, "That's an understatement. Sorry you still have to look after the kid, I just really can't help him right now since I've been made the head of the Ghost case."

"It's alright," Toshinori assured him. "Young Gon is a well meaning boy. Spending some more time with him isn't a big deal."

"What's this about a young boy?" Nezu asked as he walked over to the two.

"Ah, I meant to tell you about him, Nezu," Yagi exclaimed. "I'm currently hosting a thirteen year old boy that appeared randomly on the streets of Tokyo as a result of an unknown quirk. Detective Tsukauchi just needs a little more time before he can find the boy somewhere else to stay because the boy isn't from Japan and can't read or write Japanese."

"Are you telling me this because you wish to bring the boy here?" Nezu inferred. Toshinori was always surprised by just how perceptive the principal was.

"Yes," Toshinori replied with a little guilt. "I feel it would be irresponsible to leave him at home alone considering we do not know where he comes from. He has good intentions, but he is a little too adventurous to be left in my home alone all day. He would almost certainly sneak out and find trouble."

"I see," Nezu hummed, rubbing his chin with a paw. "As long as you can vouch for the boy, I have no problem allowing him to stay with you during the day." Suddenly the mouse's eyes narrowed into something scary and his voice dropped. "But should he cause any problems with the students, you will be held personally responsible, Toshinori."

All Might looked at the principal sheepishly and agreed.

"Stop by the front office to get a guest pass for him, and send him to my office when he arrives," Nezu said politely, his previous scary tone evaporated.

"Of course, Nezu," Toshinori replied, and quickly ducked out of the room with a wave to Naomasa. He made his way to his car so he could go pick up Gon, who had still been asleep when he left the house initially. All Might didn't teach any classes for a few periods so he had plenty of time to go get the boy. He also left a text for Naomasa saying he had more information on Gon that he'd email to the detective later. Tsukauchi responded with a thumbs up.

* * *

After arriving on U.A.'s campus via Yagi's car and being amazed by the sheer size of the campus, Gon was led inside with a guest pass and told to visit the principal's office because he wished to speak with Gon. The green haired boy politely knocked on the principal's door, and it was soon opened...by a ghost? There was nobody standing in front of him. The boy gave the office a confused glance until his eyes drifted downwards to find a large mouse standing on its hind legs and holding the door open with its paw, a bemused smile etched on its face.

"Are you a chimera ant?" Gon couldn't help but blurt out in bewilderment.

The mouse just chuckled in good nature. "I'm not quite sure what a 'chimera ant' is, but I can assure you that I am just a mouse with an intelligence quirk. Please, come in and take a seat."

The green haired boy did as he was asked, not able to shake the surprised look from his face.

"You're the principal?" the boy asked incredulously, though not with any malice.

"Indeed, I am Principal Nezu," the mouse replied as he hopped up into his office chair across from Gon. "Toshinori has told me about you of course, but I would like to hear it from your perspective, Gon-san."

"Oh, okay," the boy replied. "What do you want to know Nezu-san?"

Nezu leaned forward to rest his elbows on his desk and place his paws under his chin. "I'm particularly curious about your arrival in Tokyo and your intentions while staying here. I take the safety of my students very seriously, after all."

Gon quickly waved his hands in front of his face. "I don't mean anything bad!" he explained quickly. "I don't know how I got here, but I'm not planning on hurting anybody if that's what you mean. Yagi-san is just trying to help out Naomasa-san because he's busy so I'm staying with Yagi-san for a couple days until Naomasa-san can find a real place for me to stay until we can find a way for me to go back home," the boy rambled.

"I see," Nezu hummed. "But I also understand that you have the strength to take down a 8 ft tall villain capable of destroying a city block. Surely you understand my concern."

Gon nodded, his face scrunched up in determination. "I promise I won't hurt anyone here at the school!" _Unless they deserve it_ , the boy thought to himself.

"I suppose I'll have to take your word for it, Gon-san. Though as long as you stay with Toshinori all day I don't think there will be a problem," Nezu replied. Should the need arise, All Might would easily be able to take care of any issues that involved student safety. Although it was just a few days after the villain attack at USJ, an honest thirteen year old was probably the least of U.A.'s worries in the grand scheme of things.

"Do you have an ID?" the principal asked the boy next, partially because it was protocol for visitors and partially out of curiosity. Detective Tsukauchi had mentioned the boy didn't know written Japanese and used a different writing system and this had sent the scholar in Nezu into overdrive at the prospect of analyzing a new language.

The boy reached into his pocked and then held his card out to Nezu for inspection. The mouse's eyes lit up.

"Oh ho ho, I haven't seen one of these in years," Nezu replied with a surprised smile. "Hunter licenses are very hard to come by around here."

"Eh!? You know about Hunters, Nezu-san?" the boy exclaimed.

"I have done some research over the years," the mouse said neutrally. "And from what I understand it's unusual for someone as young as yourself to have one of those licenses."

"I guess," Gon responded a little impatiently. "But how did you find out about Hunters? Shouldn't nobody know about them here?"

Nezu gave the boy a knowing smile and instead of responding, let his eyes wander to the clock on the wall. "My, look at the time. You're going to make Toshinori late to his class if you don't go find him right now."

"But-"

"No buts," the principal told the boy firmly. "If you'll be so kind as to leave your license here so I may examine it further, you're dismissed to go find your host."

Gon suddenly retracted his Hunter license and gave the principal a wary look. "Sorry Nezu-san but I can't let this out of my sight. You can take a picture if you really want to though," the boy conceded.

"Understandable," the mouse replied, and quickly snapped a photo with his phone. "You're free to go now. Perhaps we can discuss this topic at a later date."

Gon stood up to leave, and as he walked out the door he could almost physically feel the principal's knowing smirk trained on his back. Why wouldn't the principal answer his question? Wasn't he in a completely different world? Why did the principal know what a Hunter license was?

Still lost in thought, Gon unintentionally walked in on Yagi-san having lunch with a green haired student in the teacher's lounge. They abruptly stopped their conversation when he walked in, the green haired boy looking at him quizzically.

"Am I interrupting, Yagi-san?" Gon asked.

That seemed to snap the two out of their trance and Toshinori quickly stood. "No, of course not Gon! It's also about time for classes to start back so we really must be going."

Yagi sent the boy he'd been eating with a look, and the boy gazed curiously between the host and guest before giving a polite nod in Gon's direction and hurrying out the door.

"Well, I also need to get going," Yagi spoke. "But I'm sure you'd much rather go to an interesting class instead of mine. I'd like it if you went with my friend All Might to his class for the rest of the day."

"But Nezu-san told me to stay with you!" Gon exclaimed.

"Don't worry," Toshinori tried to assure the boy. "All Might is very qualified and Nezu will understand you going with him. He's a good friend of mine and won't mind taking you to his class. We can meet back here at the end of the day."

The boy reluctantly nodded and Toshinori instructed him to wait a minute in the lounge, All Might would be here very soon. With a parting wave, Yagi walked out the door, leaving Gon alone for a moment.

Once out in the hallway, the blond made a beeline for the nearest bathroom where he could transform. He checked a text from Midoriya on the way.

 _Does he know?_ the boy had asked his mentor. He was referring to Toshinori being All Might and whether or not Gon knew. Or maybe about One for All. Either way the answer was the same.

 _No_ Toshinori replied quickly. After entering the bathroom he quickly bulked up and made his way back to the teacher's lounge.

"Hello Young Gon!" the loud voice of All Might pierced the silence of the lounge. Gon gazed up at the muscular hero with wide eyes, and Toshinori could see the gears clicking into place in the boy's head.

"You're the weird muscle-y guy from the other day!" the boy exclaimed.

All Might let out a deep laugh. "Yes, it is me, All Might!"

"You stole my fight!" the boy loudly accused the #1 hero.

All Might's unwavering smile almost faltered. "I'm sorry?"

"You jumped in and ended my fight with a single punch! I had it under control!" the boy pouted. "I just wanted to have a good fight after such a long time..."

The blond hero was completely at a loss. "There's always next time?" he tried.

It seemed to work as the boy's honey eyes lit up again and he nodded excitedly. The hero took this as his cue to lead the boy to classroom 1A.

Once they arrived, All Might asked Gon to wait outside the classroom for a moment and the boy complied. The Pro Hero quickly entered the classroom (only a minute late) and before his students could call him out on his tardiness he praised them on how well they handled the situation at USJ. Many of the students asked about his well-being, but he assured them he was fine after a visit to Recovery Girl. After giving them a brief speech on the real world and villains, etc, he finally invited Gon to come into the room. The boy immediately felt many pairs of curious eyes trained on him as he walked in to stand next to the muscular teacher. Gon turned his head to look at the students and gave them an innocent grin, hoping to appear nonthreatening, remembering the principal's concerns earlier. It seemed to do the trick as the girls in the class began furiously whispering to each other and the guys seemed less on edge.

"Today one of my coworkers had to bring this young man to work with him, so he'll be observing our class for the day!" All Might boomed. "Please introduce yourself, young man!"

Gon stared at the hulking man for a moment, not expecting to give an introduction, but did as was requested of him. He gave a cute wave and said, "Hi everyone, I'm Gon Freecss, but please call me Gon!"

The boy's blinding smile garnered a large response out of class 1A, and All Might suddenly found himself bombarded by questions.

"How old is he?"

"How is he that adorable?"

"Why the fuck is he here!?"

"Isn't a hero class a dangerous place for a kid?"

"Wait a minute is that the kid that fought the gorilla villain the other day with All Might?"

The #1 Hero was caught off-guard and began to panic a little, but luckily the class president, Young Iida, had everything under control.

"Quiet down everyone! Ask one at a time! I'm sure All Might-sensei and Freecss-san will be able to explain everything!"

The class reluctantly obeyed, the ones who had jumped up to start yelling sinking back into their chairs.

All Might sweatdropped, knowing his students would be curious, but not _this_ curious.

"I'm not that young, I'm thirteen!" Gon exclaimed to the class. "And I'm staying with Yagi-san, but he had to go teach a boring class so he sent me here with All Might-san."

Some of them chuckled at the boy's mention of another teacher's class being boring, of course any class was boring compared to All Might's. Nobody besides Midoriya knew who 'Yagi-san' was though, but the rest of the students just dismissed the name since there were dozens of other teachers at the school they didn't know. Someone took the boy's words in another way though.

"So you're just a fucking opportunist fanboy looking to get close to All Might," Bakugou spoke scathingly.

"Language, Young Bakugou!" All Might admonished knowing full well nothing would stop the boy from swearing.

Gon was unfazed by the blond's tone of voice, and instead cocked his head in confusion. "What's an opportunist?"

Bakugou just sneered at the younger boy. "Figure it out, dumbass."

"W-what Kacchan meant to say was that an opportunist is someone who takes advantage of a situation to help themselves get something they want..." Midoriya quietly explained. Gon recognized him as the boy that had eaten with Yagi-san for lunch.

"Fucking Deku, I meant exactly what I said!"

"Chill out Bakubro," Kirishima said. "I'm sure the little dude isn't like that. He doesn't look like he's fanboying over the #1 Hero right now does he?"

"Shut up Shitty Hair!" the blond bit back.

"Eh? Are you famous All Might-san?" Gon turned his confused puppy eyes to the teacher, who resisted the urge to sigh at the mess of this entire situation.

"Of course All Might-sensei is famous!" Iida exclaimed. "He is the greatest hero to have ever lived!"

Before the hero in question could protest (there were other very impactful heroes over the course of history after all) the students kept talking.

"Do you live under a rock, Freecss-san?" Tsuyu asked bluntly. A couple of the other students seemed a little panicked at her seemingly rude question, but the green haired boy didn't seem insulted.

"Well I grew up on a small island, so that's kind of close," the boy mused, rubbing his chin with his hand.

The class collectively sweatdropped.

"But aren't you the kid that fought the gorilla villain with All Might a couple days ago?" Kaminari asked the boy curiously.

"Oh!" Gon exclaimed. "Yes, I fought the gorilla guy the other day and All Might-san stole my fi-I MEAN helped me."

"But public quirk usage is illegal," Yaoyorozu mused. "Did you not face legal repercussions for your actions?"

"I don't have a quirk," Gon said with a scratch of his head. "Though nobody seems to believe me except Yagi-san."

Before the students could explode into another tangent (as he _knew_ they would), All Might quickly interjected. "Alright, let's make our way to Ground Beta for today's hero exercise! If we waste any more time in the classroom we won't have enough time for today's plans! You may wear your hero costumes or gym uniforms."

The students dropped the subject of the new boy reluctantly and quickly made their way to the door, excited to finally stretch their legs and do something.

Midoriya fell into step with Gon as they walked down the long hallways of U.A. "Sorry about Kacchan," he said on behalf of his childhood friend. "He means well, he's just...rough around the edges."

"It's okay!" Gon chirped. "Kacchan-san isn't that scary!"

A medium sized explosion went off behind the two green haired boys.

"WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST SAY YOU LITTLE BITCH?"

Midoriya was suddenly regretting his entire existence, but Gon just looked confused. "Is he talking about me?" he whispered to Midoriya.

A rough hand grabbed the front of Gon's shirt and he suddenly found himself pulled close to the loud blond's face.

"What's wrong, Kacchan-san?" Gon asked innocently.

"My name is not fucking Kacchan!" the blond screamed in frustration. "Also fuck you I'm scary as _shit_!"

Before Gon could issue an unassuming retort that would probably result in him being punched or exploded, a large hand fell heavily onto the blond's shoulder. He glanced back to figure out who the _fuck_ had the nerve to stand up to him.

"A hero does not threaten those younger than him Young Bakugou," All Might told the explosive boy seriously, hand squeezing the boy's shoulder. "A hero is supposed to set a good example."

Bakugou gave an annoyed 'tch' and pushed Gon away before storming off. Fucking figures it would be All Might.

Once the blond was out of sight, Gon smiled up at the teacher. "Thanks All Might-san, but I could have handled it myself."

The muscular man gave the boy a blinding grin. "But that does not mean you should have to. Giving help that's not asked for is what makes a true hero."

Gon didn't really understand what he meant, but judging by the way Midoriya-san now seemed happier, it must have been something good to say.

The rest of the walk to Ground Beta passed without incident and Gon found himself looking around the grounds in amazement as the students changed into their 'hero costumes'. Once everyone had gathered back together, All Might began speaking.

"Today we'll be practicing hand to hand combat without the use of your quirks!" he announced. Class 1A looked at each other in surprise; they had never done hero exercises without their quirks before, wasn't it counterproductive to not learn to use them? Especially after USJ.

Iida voiced these concerns on behalf of the class and for once All Might had an answer prepared.

"You all fought valiantly at USJ, but what will you do when you face stronger opponents? What will you do when you're cornered and facing quirk exhaustion? What if you're in a situation where your quirk will destabilize a building or structure if you use it?"

All Might paused for dramatic effect and took in his students' enraptured looks.

"Your quirks cannot save you or others in every situation. It is important to become well rounded heroes who have many different types of skills. For those of you who do not have combat oriented quirks this is especially important," the #1 hero continued.

The students began to mutter among themselves, but Toshinori could see that they understood his logic. He mentally patted himself on the back for actually saying something inspirational to his students without stumbling over his words and confusing them.

"So what exactly is the exercise today, All Might-sensei?" Midoriya asked curiously.

Oh, All Might had forgotten to explain that part. Oops.

"A rescue mission!" All Might exclaimed loudly. "Somewhat similar to our very first class, we will begin with a team of three heroes and a team of two villains. The villains are holding a hostage, which will be one of your classmates, and the heroes must rescue the hostage from the villain base and bring him back to their own hero base. However, nobody can use their quirks, hero or villain."

"Won't that put the heroes at a major advantage?" Jirou asked suspiciously.

"Theoretically yes," All Might conceded. "But today our villains will be the students with the most confidence in their hand to hand skills."

There were some cheers, some groans, and a loud statement that was undoubtedly from Bakugou saying, "I don't even need my badass quirk to fucking crush all you losers!"

The small boy at All Might's side stayed surprisingly quiet during the entire explanation, his eyes wide in wonderment as he took in the situation.

The teams were soon split up as the students who were confident in their quirkless fighting skills took on the role of the villains for the exercise. The first round was set to be Tokoyami, Hakagure, and Kaminari as the heroes versus Shoji and Sato. Hakagure and Kaminari were aleady complaining about having to go up against the two tallest and possibly most muscular guys in the class, but they were soon drowned out as the entire class was arguing over who had to be hostage for the round. Nobody was interested in being a damsel in distress, the girls especially vehement in their refusal to be rescued. After all, they were strong, independent women who didn't need no man.

All Might was frantically trying to think of a solution that wouldn't cause an uproar with the students when Gon suddenly spoke.

"I'll be the hostage," he said loudly. Twenty one pairs of eyes suddenly snapped towards him to find a determined face. "I want to be involved too!"

"A great idea, Young Gon!" All Might boomed, a blinding smile playing on his face. That was an easy solution, and it would help the students out in the long run.

1A's Class President wasn't so sure. "But sir, isn't it too dangerous to involve a child in the exercise? He could be hurt!"

The blond hero internally chuckled to himself. Ah, these kids thought they were grown up because they were fifteen and U.A. students. How cute.

"On the contrary Young Iida," All Might replied. "As heroes in training you must learn to protect civilians at all costs, and that often involves putting yourself in the way of danger! This is great practice for you all."

The students seemed to nod in agreement to their hero's words, and Kirishima also spoke up. "Dude I think Gon will be fine he faced a villain the other day and he's not even bruised or anything."

The boy in question just laughed sheepishly. That did raise an important question in most of their minds, though. How did a supposedly quirkless thirteen year old boy face off against a villain like that? It just seemed impossible. There must be more to him than met the eye.

But before anyone could dwell on the matter any longer, All Might signaled for the teams to get into place and the match began.

Shoji and Sato had tied Gon to a chair in their 'base', though they apologized to the boy for it and didn't make the knots tight enough to hurt. Gon didn't hold it against them and instead just hummed to himself in excitement for the exercise. Sato left the room to patrol for the hero team while Shoji remained behind to guard the hostage. There was maybe a minute of peace before the hero team showed up and things soon got loud and there was a lot of screaming involved. 1A students were always loud it seemed.

Gon wasn't able to see the fight going on, but he did hear Sato call out that Hakagure had slipped past him and for Shoji to engage her. The stoic student quickly rushed out of the room, leaving Gon alone. Said boy pouted, upset that he couldn't watch the action. However, his attention was soon drawn to the window as it was quietly opened and a body climbed in.

A gloved hand was held up to an invisible face and a small "Shh" was issued. Gon recognized that it was the invisible girl, though she wasn't so invisible right now wearing gloves and a gym uniform. He nodded to her and made a visible effort to keep his mouth shut as she tried to undo the knots around his body. She managed to undo the one around his right wrist and he helped her out by very subtly pushing against his bonds and loosening them for her. Soon he was able to stand up and she peeked her head out of the door looking to see if Shoji had gotten the idea to come back to the base. It seemed he hadn't, so Hakagure grabbed the boy by the hand and took off running in the direction of the heroes' base.

Naturally, they were caught. Sato suddenly appeared in front of the two and said, "I've already taken out your teammates. Hand over the hostage, hero!"

The not-so-invisible girl sucked in a panicked breath and Gon took the opportunity to attack without thinking. He freed his hand from Hakagure's death grip and launched himself at Sato, who was forced to cross his arms to block a kick that would have hit him square in the chest. Despite his large stature, he was still forced back a couple steps by the force behind the small boy's attack.

"Wait, Gon!" Hakagure called out. "I'm supposed to be the one protecting you, not the other way around!"

Gon paused, midway through his next attack, a punch, and All Might took the opportunity to speak over the intercom.

"Young Hakagure is correct, Young Gon! You are playing the hostage and as such cannot attack the villains in place of the heroes!"

Gon sweatdropped and backed down with a quick apology, returning to the invisible girl's side. However, by this time Shoji had been able to find the group and now the hero and the hostage found themselves surrounded.

"Surrender now hero, or this will be very painful for you!" Sato exclaimed, getting into his role of a villain.

Gon glanced at his 'rescuer', curious what she would do. She just let out a sigh of disappointment.

"I know I can't face both of you guys at once, I surrender."

"The villains win this round!" All Might declared. "Please return to the rest of the class as our next group prepares. Young Yaoyorozu, Mineta, and Iida are the heroes, while Young Todoroki and Kirishima are the villains!"

Gon walked back to the rest of the class with Hakagure, and listened curiously about how All Might analyzed their match. He praised Hakagure for coming up with the idea of sneaking in, but she had no support when she was trying to get out and ran right into the villains. Shoji should have been more careful about leaving the hostage alone. Sato did a great job and won MVP for the match, while Tokoyami and Kaminari were given pointers for hand to hand combat and told they could improve with the right mindset.

Gon thought it was really cool how nice and helpful All Might was to the students, and he was reminded vaguely of Bisky and Wing, though All Might was definitely different than both of Gon's previous mentors. Actually he was pretty similar to Bisky's scary form, now that Gon thought about it with a shiver. He hurried back to the villain base to push that terrifying thought out of his mind.

The second match lasted longer, considering hero team had a well thought out plan this time between the minds of Momo and Iida, but in the end the villain team still won. Iida had actually picked Gon up bridal style and _ran_ with him. Turns out he was still a very fast runner without his quirk, and his form was impeccable despite carrying a body in his arms. He had almost made it back to the hero base when he was intercepted by Todoroki, who had learned martial arts from Endeavor as well as the quirk control he was known for. Momo came out of nowhere with a well placed kick to the back of Todoroki's knee (she also knew a little martial arts with her proper upbringing, but not too much as that was not an activity that 'proper young ladies' pursued). This allowed the engine quirk user to maneuver around the 'villain' and make a dash for the hero base.

However, right as Iida was about to cross the threshold Kirishima outright tackled him to the ground, hostage and all. Naturally, Gon was fine and he had to resist the urge to fight back, but Iida was appalled on his behalf after the match was called. Todoroki, once he recovered, had been able to overpower Yaoyorozu and Kirishima wrestled Iida into a hold he couldn't get out of.

The brash redhead apologized to Gon and held out a hand to help him up after the match, and Gon just laughed good naturally and grinned back at Kirishima, taking his hand. His brash actions reminded Gon of Leorio a little bit, and he felt a pang of sadness that he hadn't seen his friend since the election for the new chairman. He shook his head and made his way back to the villain base for the third round. At least he was having fun here! The students were all very lively and unpredictable. Though he hadn't seen the small grape boy fight, he must have gotten eliminated early in the match.

The third round had Uraraka, Sero, and Tsuyu versus Midoriya and Ashido. Gon was happy to have the green haired boy and pink girl as the villains, because the two of them had been the nicest to him so far today. Midoriya had gone out of his way to help and talk to the younger boy, while Ashido was the self proclaimed leader of the 'Protecc Gon Club', whatever that was supposed to mean. He didn't even know how it started, but she had been sassing Bakugou about it for the entire class period and it was pretty funny.

Midoriya had learned from the other two matches and decided to use the villain base as a decoy and actually hide Gon somewhere else in a room closer to the center of the designated match area. All Might had never explicitly said they had to keep the hostage in the villain base, so the green haired boy was going to exploit it all he could. Gon learned that neither Mina or Izuku, as he liked to call them after asking their first names, had any formal hand to hand training, but Mina was a dancer so she figured she'd be able to pick it up well enough and Midoriya watched enough hero videos and read enough theory that he thought he could recreate some of it. He did seem overly nervous about it though.

The decoy worked, but just a few minutes before time was up and the villains were declared the victors by default, the hero team managed to find Gon and break him out. The three on two match up worked in the favor of the heroes as they worked in synchronization to take down both villains. It was the first match that the heroes had won.

Gon could hear All Might priding the heroes on their teamwork and usage of numbers from across the entire grounds, but soon noticed that the other green haired boy had yet to move back to the rest of the class.

"What's wrong Izuku?" Gon asked, unaware of how personal his usage of first names was for the people here.

Midoriya started, having forgotten that Gon was still there as well. He then smiled sadly. "I hate to disappoint All Might," he said quietly.

"Then just do better next time!" Gon offered. "You can't always win."

Midoriya smiled wryly as he stood up and began making his way back to the teacher. "I wish it was always that simple. What if there isn't a next time?"

Gon wasn't sure what to say, so he just watched as the depressed boy disappeared from sight; he wanted to help but didn't know how. Maybe he could confront Izuku about it after school was over.

The fourth match was when everything went to hell. Not that anyone expected any different since Bakugou was one of the people involved. The heroes were Aoyama, Koda, and Jirou while the villains were Ojiro and Bakugou. It was the most unbalanced match by far. Aoyama had never fought hand to hand in his life, Koda was afraid to hit anyone, and Jirou didn't have much fighting experience either but she would probably fare the best out of the group. On the other hand, Ojiro was a legitimate martial artist and Bakugou had been in enough school and street fights that he really knew how to fucking fight.

The juxtaposition between the two villains' styles was lost on no one, and the heroes' one saving grace was that the two were arguing more than they were planning. Ojiro was a generally calm and quiet person, but he had no respect for Bakugou and his sloppy fighting style that the boy bragged about. Bakugou himself didn't respect Ojiro's traditional style and strict rules. They were still arguing when the hero team surrounded their base quietly. However, the heroes were too shocked by the argument they were hearing to actually initiate the ambush they had planned.

Bakugou had switched targets and was now intentionally antagonizing Gon, who still refused to call him anything but Midoriya's childhood nickname for Bakugou. The blond had to pause his argument with Ojiro to start arguing and yelling with Gon instead after the small boy called his name to try and get his attention.

"MY FUCKING NAME IS BAKUGOU!"

"But Izuku said your name is Kacchan! Kacchan is cooler than Bakugou anyways!"

"WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU EVEN HERE YOU SHITTY BRAT?"

"I had nowhere else to go!"

"BULLSHIT!"

"It's true!"

"AND STOP LYING ABOUT BEING QUIRKLESS IT'S OBVIOUS YOU HAVE A STRENGTH QUIRK!"

"I really don't have a quirk! I told you!"

"I'LL FUCKING EXPOSE YOU RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW YOU LITTLE ASSHOLE!"

"You're supposed to be focusing on your match! You're so loud that you didn't even notice the hero team surrounding us!"

Gon's eyes widened and he quickly clamped his hands over his mouth, realizing he'd given away information he wasn't supposed to. It wasn't his fault he could smell the three person team outside though.

Bakugou, on the other hand, took the smaller boy's words as a personal insult.

"You think you're fucking better than me?" he growled, seething with anger.

"No!" Gon exclaimed hastily. "You just weren't paying attention!"

That was apparently the wrong answer as Bakugou threw all caution and morals to the wind as he charged the smaller green haired boy, his fist bursting with barely contained explosions.

Gon, instead of doing the rational thing and dodging, decided to throw his own punch in retaliation because _of course he would_. However, perhaps fueled by Gon's heightened emotions or something else entirely, he felt a strange sense of power course through him and focus into his fist as it met Bakugou's own punch.

The green haired boy watched in horror as the explosive blond was suddenly sent flying out through the doorway and a couple yards beyond before he was skidding across the ground with a loud boom.

"Oh," Gon said breathlessly, gaze flickering between Bakugou and down at his smoking hand. This wasn't good.

* * *

 *** Potential foreshadowing of Gon meeting Overhaul and co?**

 **Sorry for the long wait, guys. It isn't even four weeks into the semester but it's already trying to kill me. I've had to stay up until 5 or 6 AM a few times already just to get my work done. Hopefully it doesn't take as long for the next chapter, I've already got half of it written out whereas this one had to be written from scratch. Around 6,000 of the 8,000 words of this chapter were churned out in a single day so the quality might not be top tier but I don't know the next time I'll be able to sit down and write for an entire day will be.**

 **So what happened with Gon? Something, obviously. But you'll have to wait until his next chapter to find out exactly what. :)**

 **And what exactly does Nezu know about Hunters? Remember back in chapter one when All for One uses a Hunter License to bring Gon and Killua to the BnHA world? Their worlds have actually had contact before, but the extent to which they've overlapped won't be explained until later. But they have had enough contact that there are small settlements of Japanese people in the HxH world and that's why Killua knows Japanese writing. More to come on this mystery in later chapters.**

 **Let me know what you thought of this chapter in a review! It was a lot of fun to write Gon finally meeting Class 1A.**


	6. Chapter VI

CHAPTER VI

Killua was looking forward to having some time to himself after a rather eventful day of meeting Stain, swapping phones with a broccoli looking kid (Midoriya, he thought it was), and going on a sweet shop binge, but naturally peace and quiet was too much to ask for. The second he walked into the League of Villains' bar a tablet was immediately shoved in his face by Kurogiri.

"Explain," the man demanded.

The white haired boy gave the warp user an odd look but complied, backing away some from the device that had been a mere inch away from his nose before. He focused his eyes on the news articles presented to him, but as soon as he read the titles his eyebrows shot all the way up to his hairline.

 _THE GHOST AND THE HERO KILLER ARE CO-CONSPIRATORS_

 _THE HERO KILLER IS A MEMBER OF THE LEAGUE OF VILLAINS?_

 _TOKYO'S SERIAL KILLERS ARE IMITATING EACH OTHER_

 _DOUBLE TROUBLE: THE HERO KILLER AND THE GHOST_

 _IS TOKYO BIG ENOUGH FOR TWO KILLER EGOS?_

Curious, Killua opened one of the articles to try and wrap his mind around what was going on with the media. He hadn't even been _seen_ with Chizome, had he? So where was all this speculation coming from?

 _The Hero Killer's latest victim was another pro hero, but this time the hero wasn't the only one to find himself on the receiving end of Tokyo's most notorious serial killer's wrath. A policeman who happened across the scene also lost his life, but in a way completely inconsistent with the Hero Killer's normal modus operandi (MO). The police officer was beheaded; this leads experts to believe that The Ghost is also involved in the case. Although it is possible that the Hero Killer is imitating The Ghost in his execution style killing, the investigators at the scene are convinced this is unlikely judging by the clean cut and angle of the wound that perfectly match The Ghost's previous victims._

 _This raises new concerns that the two serial killers have teamed up and will soon be a force to be reckoned with in the city. Pro Heroes, law enforcement, and civilians alike will need to watch their backs; it has been years since a public threat this large has faced Tokyo. With added speculation that The Ghost is involved with the League of Villains, this almost certainly spells bad times ahead for us all._

So really, it was just the media being dramatic and jumping to conclusions like always. Killua snorted and shoved his hands into his pockets, his eyes raising back up to meet Kurogiri's yellow ones.

"I just happened to run into him while I was walking around. As if I'd be doing someone else's dirty work when I'm already stuck with you assholes," the boy spoke dismissively. He had no intention of revealing that his meeting with Stain had actually gone well.

"And the police officer?" Kurogiri pressed, not satisfied.

"I'm not risking my identity getting out," Killua shrugged. "He thought I was a victim of a serial killer. That's a lot of unwanted attention and suspicion once they realize that there's no record of me existing here." It technically wasn't a lie. Just not the whole truth.

"That's still a rather trivial reason for killing someone," Kurogiri spoke slowly as if he was re-evaluating his view on the boy. "I had thought you were above senseless killing."

Killua's mouth turned down into a frown. "Killing isn't glamorous. That's just the way life is. I've got to look out for myself above all else because nobody else will."

If it was possible for a wispy void of a face to look saddened, Kurogiri managed it. "It's unfortunate that a young boy like yourself views the world in such a way," he lamented. "I was never a proponent of using you for our cause, but it is not my place to question our Master."

Apparently they had both misjudged each other, Killua thought to himself. The small assassin had never stopped to consider that his 'captors' had any feelings towards him at all. He figured they just saw him as a tool to do their bidding. Kurogiri, at least, wasn't as psychotic as he originally thought. However, the boy was unwilling to let this show outwardly.

"Pretty hypocritical of you to say something like that when you idiots don't value the lives of anyone but yourselves," the pale boy replied with a tinge of a challenge. Killua himself was not exempt from the same hypocrisy, but he was curious how the portal user would respond. "You call kill all you want without regard for the consequences but the second it comes to your own group suddenly you care."

This was the same situation that Gon had once been enraged with the Phantom Troupe over, but Killua knew better. The Zoldyck family was the exact same way. Well, the amount they cared about each other varied greatly between family members, but even though Killua loathed his family he still felt a bond to them that he would never be able to rid himself of. And it seemed to him that the League of Villains was similar.

"I have yet to directly kill anyone while I have been with the League," Kurogiri countered, somewhat confused. "The only real target of our organization set by Shigaraki and the Master is All Might. There will naturally be other casualties including those who fight with All Might, but we are not a petty villain organization killing on a whim."

Killua immediately bristled. "Then what the fuck am I doing?" he all but yelled in frustration. "I'm being sent around like a dog just to get rid of random people. Is this how you keep your high and mighty stance? Make others do the dirty work so the blame isn't on you? That's such _bullshit_."

Kurogiri sighed and his shoulders deflated. "I will admit that Shigaraki is childish, and it does appear on the surface that most of your targets are picked on a whim, but for the most part eliminating them serves the purpose of furthering the agenda of the League."

"For the most part," Killua scathingly mimicked.

"...I will admit that a few of them were just to test your abilities in different situations," the warp user finally admitted.

The boy rolled his eyes as a small spike of killing intent leaked out. "I never asked for this, you know. I thought I had finally escaped it, actually. I should have known that I was being naive for thinking that maybe I could be my own person and not just someone else's weapon."

He stormed off and disappeared into an adjoining hallway, but even in his anger the boy's feet didn't make a sound.

The warp user stood in stunned silence, having never fully considered the gravity of what the League was doing by exploiting a young boy from another dimension. They had all just assumed he was a tool to be used without considering his beliefs or what his life was like where he was from. Especially since the boy had not given his name (did he even have one?), it was easy to assume the boy was just a two dimensional thing willing to do as he was told. But it was suddenly becoming evident to Kurogiri that All for One had managed to bring an actual human to their world.

Kurogiri felt a small part of himself twist up in pity for the boy. The warp user was not heartless. Callous from many years of disillusionment, yes, but not unable to feel sympathy. He was still capable of guilt. He had unconsciously pushed those emotions away in the past, associating them with weakness, but those were the things that kept him human. Just because he was a villain did not mean he was not a person, and it seemed in Shigaraki's mad quest for vengeance Kurogiri had managed to forget his way.

When he had originally joined the League, he had only seen a promise of a better world. Heroes and civilians alike had never done the shadowy man any favors, and when All for One actually offered him a place to belong he latched onto it graciously. He had not even considered that he was going to become a villain at the time (he never planned to be one, actually). Over time, however, as he began to see the world through the lens of All for One and Shigaraki, Kurogiri's own views twisted into something he never would have considered on his own. And now looking back, perhaps he really had become the villain he had never wished to be.

Later that evening he texted the boy, and suggested that he should try to recruit the Hero Killer to the League. Because it would likely lessen the burden on the boy should the serial killer join as well.

The pale boy didn't send a reply, but he read it. And that was all Kurogiri could really offer at the moment.

* * *

Killua slammed his door shut and threw himself down on his bed, still seething with anger. He felt powerless, like he had no real self worth. Nobody cared about _him_ , just what he could do. In the past he hadn't cared about himself either, but after spending so much time with Gon and Alluka he'd learned to value his life and self. Not necessarily because he believed he was important, but because he knew that his best friend and sister genuinely cared about him and would be inconsolable if he was dead. Not to mention they were both _idiots_ and Killua was probably the only reason they hadn't both managed to die of the randomest and stupidest things yet.

Also, after spending so much time around his two favorite people, he didn't like being alone anymore; he had little purpose then. He missed Alluka. When he was with her he felt like he wasn't just a weapon to be thrown around on a whim. He had someone to protect and live for. And he missed Gon, of course.

The thought of his best friend sent a pang of sadness through Killua. He hadn't seen Gon since they had separated at the World Tree, so it had been over half a year since they had last met. Gon was the one who had taught Killua that he actually had a reason to live, and for that the pale boy would be forever grateful. If only he could see the green haired boy now; his cheerful attitude would instantly bring Killua out of his funk. Since that was obviously out of the question, Killua instead resolved to find Gon as soon as he returned home. It had really been far too long since they'd been together.

Feeling slightly better now that he had at least a vague goal, the pale boy allowed himself to drift off, hoping to sleep away the maelstrom of emotions circulating within him.

Around midnight he awoke groggily, but no longer felt so heavy. He let out a long breath and sat up.

Checking his phone in the dark, he rolled his eyes at the text Kurogiri had sent him. Maybe the man really did mean well, but like hell Killua was going to expose Chizome to the League. The less power and influence the League had, the better. It gave Killua more control.

Speaking of the League, although he felt like he was being played, the incentive to finish his job to return home still stood. So for the next few hours Killua attempted to research Kesagiriman, his first pro hero target. Unfortunately, trying to learn about the hero was like pulling teeth.

The man was a mystery. The only definitive information Killua had managed to glean was that his quirk was speed based. However, because of his tendency to end fights in seconds, there were no official news videos of him because the media was too slow to catch him in action. There were a couple fan videos posted online, but phone quality was unable to pick up the hero's movements as it looked like he just disappeared and reappeared somewhere else. Killua read forums online that debated the hero's top speed, but numbers ranged anywhere from 100 mph to 10,000 mph. People were also trying to decide whether or not he would be able to dodge a bullet. Unfortunately, none of them were trustworthy sources that the pale boy could actually make plans with.

Kesagiriman's real name and face were also hidden from the public, so Killua had almost nothing to go off of. With such little information, the boy came to the conclusion that he would have have to stalk the man himself. One of the few things listed in the hero's official information sheet was his agency, so all Killua really had to do was stake out the place until Kesagiriman left and the small assassin could tail him to observe. It was a skill Killua had learned very young, and was always helpful in figuring out his targets.

He went back to sleep that night with the resolution to travel to the hero's agency the next day.

* * *

Before Killua hopped on a train to make his way to Kesagiriman's Hero Agency, he made a vital stop at a local confectionery to satiate his sweet tooth. After trying out five different bakeries and cafes yesterday, Killua's favorite by far had been Sato Sweet Shop. From what he could tell, it was a new little cafe run by a middle aged couple without any other staff. Perhaps they had just moved to the area, or just didn't have a lot of money to start up. Either way, it didn't matter as their baking skills were top tier in Killua's opinion. The wife recognized him from the day before and smiled warmly as he approached the counter.

"Back again today?" she asked mirthfully.

"Yep," Killua replied with his own smile. "And if I have a choice I'll be here every day from now on."

The woman positively beamed at him and didn't even charge him for a few of the items he ordered (one of everything). Killua was a little surprised she didn't question his large order like most others had, but he was grateful nonetheless. He carefully maneuvered himself and his multitude of boxed sweets to a table in the corner before indulging. Considering their modestly large menu, he wouldn't be done anytime soon.

Once the breakfast rush had died down and the small restaurant was filled only with a few customers scattered around at random tables, the woman made her way over to Killua and took the seat opposite of him. The boy looked up curiously at her.

"Pardon my intrusion," she said. "But I do have to wonder if you have a sugar related quirk like the ones that run in my family. For instance, my son gains physical strength from ingesting sugar. There aren't too many other people who consume that much sugar without having specific reason to."

Killua shook his head. "Nope, I just really like sweets."

The woman laughed good-naturedly. "I see, you're still young so it won't affect you, but wait until you get older..." she sighed as she patted her stomach.

"Then I'll be fat and happy," Killua replied with a shrug. He had a really fast metabolism though, so he doubted he'd ever really gain weight. He wasn't Milluki, Killua thought with an internal snort.

Sato-san then proceeded to tell Killua about her husband and son, the latter of which was a student at U.A. and the reason the family had moved to Tokyo from Tottori Prefecture (wherever that was). U.A. was outside Tokyo in Musutafu, but the parents had decided to open up a shop in Tokyo where they'd hopefully be getting more business.

Killua paid attention to most of what she was saying, and continued eating throughout the entire conversation.

"What's U.A. like?" Killua asked Sato-san, curious about the place that Tomura had attacked. "I'm not from Japan, I'm just visiting some distant relatives for an extended period of time," the pale boy added as a cover story.

"Ah, that makes sense why you wouldn't know about it," the woman hummed. "U.A. is the number one ranked high school for heroes in training in Japan. They have Pro Heroes for teachers and an abundance of resources and connections that will help prepare and propel the students into a successful hero career." After a pause, she sheepishly added, "It's also a bit pricey, so my husband and I decided to take a gamble by opening up a shop in a busy metropolis as opposed to our old family business in a small town. It's still uncertain right now, but I think we'll soon be able to make a decent profit."

Killua nodded, asked the woman a few other trivial questions to be polite (which he was capable of on occasion thank you very much), and by then he had finished the rest of his sweets and was ready to leave. Sato-san waved goodbye to him on his way out, and he returned the gesture.

One train ride later, Killua stepped out of the station and pulled up the map app to type in the address of Kesagiriman's agency. He arrived twenty minutes later, and chose to stake out on a rooftop across the street from the hero's building - an unassuming mid-century skyscraper.

Since Killua had no idea what kind of schedule Kesagiriman kept, he was prepared to be waiting for most of the day just to catch a glimpse of the hero.

A few people dressed in hero costumes came and went throughout the afternoon but Killua didn't catch sight of Kesagiriman's weird mask and baggy clothes at all.

The boy's dinner consisted of street food from a vendor just a building away from the hero agency. Killua took the opportunity to slowly walk by the building and eavesdrop on a couple sidekicks talking about hero business as he ate his food. Besides hearing about Mount Lady's tight ass and All Might's abs (seriously, why were adults always so sexually preoccupied?) he did manage to catch a small comment about a meeting occurring at 6PM. Satisfied with his eavesdropping and not interested in hearing more thirsty comments by the sidekicks, Killua made his way back to his rooftop to observe from afar again.

6PM came and went but still no Kesagiriman. An hour and a half later, Killua had almost given up for the day and was using his map app again to find the nearest library when a small group strolled out of the hero agency. A patrol group, the boy realized. There were mostly young looking heroes or sidekicks, but walking at the forefront and flanked by the rest, a masked and baggy clothes wearing hero appeared. Bingo.

Killua followed the group by rooftop as they patrolled the city. The first twenty minutes passed uneventfully as the group just seemed to methodically walk the streets, but Kesagiriman soon received a radio transmission and the group immediately took off at a sprint. Killua followed easily. The patrol group was soon face to face with two gangs in the middle of a turf battle. The sidekicks moved to help the civilians who had been injured in the crossfire while the two pro heroes, Kesagiriman and another woman, made quick work of disarming and neutralizing the gang members on both sides. Killua had to admit that Kesagiriman was fast, he effortlessly wove through the mass of people knocking weapons out of hands and utilizing pressure points to force many into unconsciousness. He used a makeshift rope to tie a small group together and handcuffed others. The gang members didn't even see him coming.

To the untrained eye, the pro hero appeared to be teleporting around the scene. To the pale assassin, however, the hero was still trackable. Which meant unless the hero was severely holding back, Killua would be able to match the man's speed without using nen at all.

That finding in itself was a weight off the boy's shoulders. He had no way of knowing how nen would affect people here. Would he be awakening their own latent auras by exposing them to it? Or would they be unaffected because their powers stemmed from quirks instead? Nen might even be poisonous to their bodies since it was a foreign entity. It was all a mystery. The boy wasn't very keen on the idea of accidentally spreading nen to people here, so he had been avoiding using it so far while he was here.

Satisfied with his findings for the day, Killua made his way back down to the street a couple blocks away from the hero and his team before setting his app for Musashino Art University Library **(This is a beautiful library, I suggest looking up pictures!)** which was the first search result for nearby libraries. Once there, he used one of the public computers in the library to corroborate the information he'd found the previous day on Kesagiriman and fact checked the numbers based on what he'd seen with his own two eyes. He was starting to formulate a plan to take the pro hero out, but it would still be wise to observe for a couple more days before making his move.

* * *

The next morning Killua returned to Sato Sweet Shop and got his usual order of everything. He arrived when the cafe opened at the crack of dawn, and caught a glimpse of the son the shop owner had mentioned the day before. He looked exactly like his parents and was wearing a school uniform that was vaguely familiar. The large teenager shoveled a couple pastries into his mouth before rushing out of his parents' shop, most likely to make the train to Musutafu. His parents shouted embarrassingly mushy encouragement after him and Killua briefly wondered if that was what a healthy parent-child relationship was like. He wouldn't know, after all.

Once again, Killua spent his day on the rooftop of a building across the street from Kesagiriman's agency. Although it would be beneficial for him to snoop around the agency, he didn't dare enter the building. He'd be on all the cameras and if law enforcement tried hard enough they could probably trace things back to a very conspicuous looking kid who was frequenting the hero's agency before his death. He also suspected that if he used some electricity to short circuit the security system it would set off an alarm immediately. He did not know the full extent of how technology worked in Japan, but from what he'd seen so far it was more advanced than anything he'd seen before. So instead, Killua was stuck watching from across the street where he couldn't be seen.

Kesagiriman didn't seem to be out in the field today, as he had only left the skyscraper once around lunch time and quickly returned; it must have been an office day. Killua let out a small groan to himself. He may be practiced in information gathering and tailing, but that didn't make it not boring. After a uneventful day of people watching and wandering thoughts, long after the sun had set and most workers had gone home, Kesagiriman finally emerged from the building around 11PM. He must have been months behind on paperwork or something, Killua thought moodily.

The boy stood up from his perch and cracked his stiff bones before silently moving to follow Kesagiriman, first from the roof tops and then from the ground to get a closer look at the hero. He was of average height and build, though it was hard to tell if the man worked out because of his baggy, furry clothes. His mask was firmly in place and left no chance of the man's real identity being revealed. A smart move on the hero's part, Killua thought. Kesagiriman could live a normal civilian life and no one would be any the wiser of his job as a pro hero.

The boy maneuvered his body so it would be impossible for the hero to see him even if he happened to look back. The man walked down multiple lamp lit streets, taking the occasional turn. Killua committed the route to memory, but in the back of his mind he had to wonder if Kesagiriman was taking some roundabout way to where he was going. Surely there was a more direct route than this. Unfortunately, this part of the city was unfamiliar to Killua so he couldn't really tell.

After another 10 minutes or so of walking, the hero eventually turned onto a narrow, dimly lit street and suddenly stopped walking a quarter of the way down the street. Killua frowned and stopped as well, blending himself into the shadows. Had the hero managed to notice that he was being followed?

However, Kesagiriman gave no indication of being aware of Killua's presence. The hero just grumbled to himself and leaned down to open his briefcase, which he then began rummaging through.

"I swear I remembered to grab it off my desk, did I really forget it?" the man mumbled to himself. Killua was able to pick up the hero's words faintly with his enhanced hearing.

The masked hero swiveled around to face the way he had come from, his eyes passing directly over the pale assassin's hiding spot without noticing him. He seemed to be deliberating whether or not he should go back to his office or not.

Kesagiriman let out an annoyed huff and began to dig through his pockets (apparently he had nearly a dozen hidden in the folds of his costume), his shoulders slightly tensed out of annoyance but not showing any signs of wariness for his surroundings.

Killua's resolve to just observe the hero was wavering. The assassin had originally planned to only tail Kesagiriman and gather information on him tonight, but his current predicament was a great opportunity to strike. He didn't have as much information on the hero as he would like, but the boy also rationalized that he probably wouldn't be getting much more information anyways; Killua had already exhausted all the resources he could get his hands on.

He had also seen Kesagiriman in action yesterday (as well as in multiple videos online), and was confident he could outpace the speed quirk hero. Should he really need it, the latent electricity within his body would be enough to power his nen as well. After all, if he just used his nen on himself and not the hero it wouldn't cause any side effects for the man. It was what he had done during his second Hunter Exam and everyone had turned out fine. Probably. He didn't stick around to check but he was fairly certain.

Throwing caution to the wind, the boy made the split second decision to go ahead and go through with the assassination right now. He quickly and silently sliced the wires to the sole camera monitoring the street and readied himself behind the unsuspecting hero, who was now pulling apart the folders within his briefcase on the ground. The boy's movements were completely silent, and he was careful to mask his _in_ , despite the fact that nobody in this world would be able to sense his nen anyways.

After all, Killua rationalized to himself, he just wanted to go home. The sooner he got this over with the sooner he could return to Gon and Alluka.

The pale assassin knew, logically, that he was being hasty and that he had yet to see the full extents of Kesagiriman's quirk against powerful opponents, but he pushed the thought to the back of his mind to focus on his current situation.

Despite the fact that Killua was now standing right behind the hero the man didn't seem to notice at all, still grumbling to himself and throwing papers all over the ground.

Without further delay, the boy let out an imperceptible breath and leapt in for the kill, his fingertips hardened to their clawed state.

However, the second his feet left the ground Killua knew he had made a mistake as his instincts suddenly went haywire. But it was too late for him to stop midair, and he was forced to commit to an action he knew wasn't going to work.

The seemingly unaware hero easily moved out of the way of the small assassin's strike, and Killua suddenly found himself face to face with Kesagiriman, who was baring down on the boy with glare.

"I had a sinking suspicion I was being followed, so I stopped to lure you out. What's your deal kid?" the hero spoke harshly.

Killua mentally berated himself as his body flooded with adrenaline. Now that he'd been seen he couldn't just make his escape and come back later. The hero knew the boy's appearance now, and Killua's chances of remaining anonymous in this world would be shot to hell. He had to end this now.

"Nothing personal," the boy replied in a steady voice that didn't match his agitated mental state, and instantly shot forward with the intent to kill. He had thought he was the one catching the hero off-guard, but it had really been the opposite. Now that the playing field was even with both parties facing each other head on, Killua couldn't afford to hold back. He disappeared from his place a few feet away from the hero and reappeared right in front of him a fraction of a second later.

Despite the boy's quick burst of speed, Kesagiriman easily caught Killua's wrist as the kid lunged for his throat. The boy's speed was admitted very fast, but it just didn't compare to the hero's own quirk. The boy's eyes briefly widened in surprise, but he wasted no time and followed up with a kick aimed at the hero's kneecap. The speed quirk user effortlessly hopped over the boy's leg and twisted around the boy to grab his other arm in one smooth motion.

Suddenly Killua found himself restrained with his hands behind his back, the hero holding him in a firm grasp.

"I'm going to have to arrest you, kid. You can't just go around attacking heroes; you could hurt someone or get hurt yourself," Kesagiriman informed the boy from behind in a professional voice. "This is for your own good."

Killua felt a flare of anger at how easily the man was outpacing him and wretched his hands out of the hero's grasp in a small display of strength. The boy put a few paces between himself and the hero, his eyes boring into the man's visor defiantly. He let out a small smirk. Good to know the hero was underestimating him because of his age. The boy allowed nen to wash over his body as he applied _ken_ and prepared himself to attack again, shifting into a slight crouch.

"I suppose you don't want to do this the easy way then," Kesagiriman sighed. "The hard way it is, kid." And with that, the hero vanished.

Killua felt his instincts screaming at him but he was too late to complete evade the masked man's hand chop that was delivered to the back of the boy's neck. To the man's surprise, his attempt to hit a pressure point bounced off seemingly rock hard skin. His hand also started to tingle in a very foreign and uncomfortable way that he had never felt before.

Knowing the man wasn't expecting him to still be standing, Killua quickly lashed out with his boot and it connected with the man's midsection. He fleetingly felt concern for letting his nen come in contact with the quirk user but didn't have time to consider the possible repercussions for his actions at the moment.

The man made a satisfying oof, not expecting the hit, and small assassin pressed his advantage and managed to land a punch to the man's face and another kick to his back that threw the hero to the ground. Before Killua could deliver a finishing blow, the man sped away again. The boy landed where the man had just laid half a second ago and his hand cracked the asphalt on impact.

Sharp blue eyes snapped up and trained themselves on the hero who was now standing a safe distance away, clutching his back and trying to catch his breath. An ugly bruise was already starting to form on his cheek.

"What the hell's your deal kid?" the aching hero bit out. "You weren't that fast or strong half a minute ago. I was trying to not hurt you, but you leave me no choice now."

Killua just cocked an eyebrow, feigning confidence he didn't posses. Internally the boy was starting to panic. If the hero chose to run away instead of fight at any point Killua's physical description would become common knowledge. Although it wouldn't be the end of the world, it would be a huge pain to deal with. He needed to end this fight and Kesagiriman. Soon.

The aforementioned hero became a blur as he rushed towards Killua, who was starting to adjust to the man's speed now. That still didn't mean he could stop all of the hero's attacks, unfortunately. The masked hero didn't have a whole lot of strength compared to the small assassin, but he made up for it with the sheer amount of hits he could land. Killua was barely able to block half of the man's punches. Even with the aid of nen, the hero was still the superior in speed.

The pale assassin cursed his own impulsiveness. Had he observed Kesagiriman for longer, he would have been able to notice that the hero had been holding back the other day. Killua had been overconfident in his abilities and rushed into a fight he had no business being in yet. This kind of shame was a new feeling for the boy; his family had instilled in him self preservation tactics and extreme caution, especially Illumi, for all of his life. After freeing himself from his brother's mind influencing needle, Killua finally began to take risks of his own volition, but he never overestimated himself. After travelling with Alluka for half a year and gaining strength during that time, the white haired boy hadn't faced a single opponent who had come close to overpowering him. And apparently he had become arrogant in that time. Well shit.

He didn't have any electricity stored up in body to activate Godspeed since he wasn't expecting a fight today. Sure he'd be able to transmute his nen into electricity to a smaller degree by using the latent electricity his body naturally produced, but it probably wouldn't be enough to match the hero's speed quirk.

Instead the boy focused on understanding Kesagiriman's attack patterns, and he was soon able to start predicting the man and evade. Small sparks began to flash around the boy's pale skin as he channeled his transmuter nen into his limbs to improve his reflexes. This became effective for a few seconds and successfully infuriated Kesagiriman, who was frankly tired of his small assailant continually speeding up to match the hero's quirk.

However, the boy was suddenly thrown for a loop as the man switched tactics. After taking a few sudden blows to the face, Killua was slightly dazed and unable to stop the hero from grabbing him under his arms and _throwing_ him out of the alley where he roughly collided with a telephone pole.

Since Killua's body was made a little sturdier than most, the wooden pole took more of a hit than the boy. The wood splintered and cracked with a sickening noise. Despite the fact that his head was spinning, the boy had the mind to move out of the way of the pole as it collapsed onto the ground, the wires zipping with electricity as they were stretched to their breaking point.

Luckily none of the wires brushed against Killua on their descent, though the boy was fairly sure he'd survive the immense voltage anyways (it would still hurt like a bitch though). Instead the cords and exposed wires were now haphazardly shrewn around the boy, rendering the ground he stood on an electric field. The boy's thick rubber soles kept him from being majorly electrocuted, though he did feel a small buzz and experienced some vague pain in his legs. Then again, Killua was trained from birth to withstand electricity that would either paralyze or kill a normal person.

The hero looked on in horror at what he'd done, thinking he had just inadvertently killed a child. However, he calmed slightly seeing that the boy appeared to be unaffected by the electricity no doubt surrounding him.

"DON'T MOVE KID!" Kesagiriman roared, his voice desperate and a little hoarse. "YOU'LL BE ELECTROCUTED AND ALMOST CERTAINLY DIE IF ONE OF YOUR FEET LEAVES THE GROUND!" He may believe the boy was a threat that needed to be handled by the police, but that didn't mean he wanted the kid to die. Especially not because of the hero's own mistake.

"I'm calling for backup now," the hero continued, leveling his voice out. "They'll be here to rescue you soon!" The man sped back to his briefcase and pulled out a transmitter as the boy just stared at him.

Oh shit, Killua thought to himself. He wasn't about to get caught here. The boy eyed the sparking wires, trying to decide if it was worth it for him to grab them. It would hurt like hell but it would give him an edge over the hero.

"Kesagiriman requesting backup from heroes and police in the area! A telephone pole has collapsed and trapped a villain within the radius of the electric current. The villain is dangerous and not to be taken lightly. He has an unknown quirk. His physical description is-"

The man stopped mid sentence as fear suddenly coursed through his veins. He watched in horror as the boy reached down and took a hold of one of the thick cables in his hand.

"NO, STOP!" the man furtively called out.

Killua made the split second decision to grab the wire as soon as the man mentioned physical appearance. _Not today, you bastard_. He chose one that just had a small section of exposed wiring where the covering was ripped, not reckless or stupid enough to take a hold of a wire completely exposed. The pale assassin gritted his teeth as the electricity ripped through his body. It was a much higher voltage than what he usually exposed himself to, he realized a bit too late. His palm was definitely charred now.

The boy let go of the wire quickly and then instantly transmuted the raw electricity into a form his body could use. The pain dulled as Killua felt his Godspeed form wash over him in a familiar wave. A light blue aura enveloped the boy as his hair spiked itself out dramatically. His piercing blue eyes became electric as he fixed the hero with an even gaze.

Kesagiriman was so flabbergasted as to what he was seeing that he wasn't even able to track the boy's movements as he suddenly disappeared and reappeared behind the hero with the transmitter in his small hand. The device made a pathetic sound as the boy crushed it with his palm. The smell of burnt flesh was permeating the air, and Kesagiriman resisted the urge to gag.

Their entire exchange had taken place over the course of a minute, give or take a few seconds, but such a short amount of time gave neither side proper time to really understand the other. Super speed did not necessarily allow for the brain to keep up in the analytical sense as it could with reflexes and agility.

The pro hero couldn't help but demand an answer from the electrified boy in that moment in an attempt to understand just what he had gotten himself into.

"What _are_ you?"

* * *

 **Cliffhanger, sorry not sorry haha. I'm taking a lot of liberties with Kesagiriman's quirk since it hasn't been explicitly defined in the manga but I hope you'll find that it's justified in the end.**

 **Killua's sweet shop binge last chapter actually had a purpose! What better way to get Killua involved with UA than something as unassuming as sweets?**

 **Thank you to all the reviewers who have reminded me of certain idiosyncrasies of the HxH world and the particulars of nen. I'll admit I haven't seen HxH in a couple years, so I do periodically have to look up things that I can't quite remember. Please let me know if I make any mistakes!**

 **This chapter was a little slow, but it would have been way too much had I done what I originally planned (Killua's POV all the way up to the Sports Festival). I'm really excited for things that will come later in this story (especially the Hero Killer Arc), but I would be doing all of you a disservice by rushing into them. There will be a lot of surprise meetings and revelations throughout this story but first we have to build up to them. I hope you guys are excited as I am! See you next time when we're back with Gon, and drop a review if you enjoyed (or have a criticism) :)**


	7. Chapter VII

CHAPTER VII

The stunned silence that permeated Ground Beta was filled only with the echo of an explosion ricocheting off nearby buildings, but even that faded fast. Class 1A was torn between staring incredulously at the small boy with a smoking fist and glancing nervously at the form of Bakugou sprawled onto his back a few meters away. The class collectively held their breath, waiting to see who moved first.

There were a few terse seconds of nothing before Gon uttered a small, underwhelming, "Oh." And then something unexpected happened.

Bakugou began laughing. It was only loud enough for those in the immediate vicinity to hear, but the raw and spiteful sounds escaping from the blond's throat were unmistakably laughter. Five pairs of eyes snapped towards him, and those watching from screens remotely were similarly enraptured.

Gon lowered his soot covered fist to his side warily, momentarily ignoring the stinging sensation of open wounds on his hand and trying to push the racing thoughts of what had just happened out of his mind. His large eyes narrowed slightly in anticipation for another attack as the explosive blond pushed himself upright with his left arm while his right hovered over the ground uselessly. His hand was already swelling, and three of his fingers appeared to be misshapen.

Red eyes immediately met brown. Rage was the first discernible emotion filling Bakugou's crimson orbs, but Gon was surprised to find that his opponent's eyes were not just filled with anger, but simultaneously a smug sort of triumph. A smirk spread its way across the blond's face in a way that made him appear feral.

"You fuckin' liar," Bakugou spat.

"I-" Gon tried to defend himself, but quickly shut his mouth. He had felt his aura spike for a second, but it had disappeared as fast as it had appeared. The only evidence the boy had that anything had happened at all was Bakugou's clearly broken hand, and if not for that Gon likely would have brushed off the rush of power he felt as a fluke. After all, his ability to use his nen had been gone since he had woken up from the coma. He had lived the past months similarly to his life before he ever left Whale Island in the first place, when he was ignorant of aura. Occasionally he tried to meditate and call back the feeling but his efforts had never been met with results. Ging was unhelpful and cryptic as always, and didn't offer Gon a solution to his problem. So instead, Gon fell back into the easy and simple rhythm of his life on Whale Island with only his hunter license to remind him that his adventures around the world had really happened. The issue of his absent aura was pushed to the back of his mind as a problem for later.

But apparently, his aura was tired of being repressed. But why did it choose to reawaken now of all times? And how?

"You think everyone here is stupid enough to fall for your little ruse?" Bakugou growled, slowly stalking his way towards the smaller boy, sparks beginning to gather in his left palm as his right hand hung uselessly at his side. "That you're some innocent brat who just so happened to end up here at the best Hero school in Japan? With _All Might_ of all people."

"I don't even know what that _means_ ," Gon countered in frustration. "I don't know where Japan is on a map, I can't read anything here, and I really don't understand what being a hero means!"

"I ain't falling for your shit," the blond replied unsympathetically. "Do yourself a favor and just get the fuck out of here!"

Bakugou lunged with his hand ablaze and Gon quickly threw up a guard with his forearms. However, before they collided a large shadow fell over Gon and he found himself staring at a muscled, broad back. All Might easily seized Bakugou's wrist and directed his hand upward so the explosion detonated harmlessly into the air. Gon felt a strange sense of déjà vu from when the hulking man had stepped in front of him in much the same way against the gorilla villain a few days ago.

"Enough," the #1 Hero commanded. "Both of you."

The smaller boy slowly lowered his arms, absentmindedly noting how empty he felt without the feeling of his aura all of a sudden.

The blond, on the other hand, snarled and tried to wretch his arm out of the #1 Hero's iron grip to no avail. "Fucking let me go, All Might!"

"Not until you calm down enough to be civil around our guest," the man replied evenly, though there was an edge in his voice.

"That little shit was provoking me!" Bakugou argued back with another fruitless tug of his arm.

"I wasn't!" Gon couldn't help but defend. "You were-"

A _look_ from All Might shut Gon up before he could finish his sentence and spur Bakugou into even more of a rage.

"You are both at fault," the muscular man informed them. "Young Bakugou may have thrown the first punch, but Young Gon made the wrong decision to counter with even more force."

"But I didn't mean to," Gon said dejectedly. "I just..."

"Regardless of your intentions Young Gon, you broke Young Bakugou's hand," All Might reminded the boy, his voice gentler than before. "I had assumed you to have more self control of your strength. For that misjudgment, I will take responsibility. I should not have allowed you to be placed in a situation where you may be forced to use your power without knowing how it would affect others. You must be very stressed being thrown into a completely new environment."

Gon's eyes widened at the man's words. "No, no, don't blame yourself All Might-san! I just didn't realize what would happen. I- this has never happened before." The boy gestured to his raw, soot covered hand. How was Gon supposed to know that his nen would decide now was the right time to make a comeback?

The #1 Hero's brows furrowed at the sight of Gon's unsightly hand. "I believe both of you are in need of a trip to see Recovery Girl; we will resolve this incident later. Bakugou, my boy, are you calm now?"

The red eyed boy ground out a "yeah whatever" and quickly retracted his arm back to his side. He only offered the green haired boy a sideways glare.

"Young Kirishima," All Might called out to the nearest camera. "Please accompany them to the nurse's office." The 'and make sure they don't throw another punch' was implied.

Turning back to the two troublemakers, the blond hero said, "I will be along shortly, but first I must call Aizawa to come watch the rest of the class."

Kirishima jogged his way over to the three but All Might was already making the phone call to Aizawa so the two boys with damaged hands slipped out the door with the red haired boy.

Back in the observation area that Kirishima had left, the rest of the students were already coming up with outrageous theories.

* * *

To Gon's surprise, Recovery _Girl_ was actually a small old woman. Her nickname must have been coined a long time ago, he decided. He was kind of uncomfortable with calling the nurse a girl when she clearly wasn't, but unfortunately he wasn't able to read the nameplate that bore what he assumed to be her actual name. But before he was able to ask one of the others in the room what it said, the older woman had descended upon them.

"Back again, Bakugou-kun?" she asked in a kind voice, but there was an underlying steel to her tone that was a little scary.

The boy in question grunted and averted his gaze, opting to hold out his right hand instead of verbally explain.

Recovery Girl sighed and gestured for him to take a seat on one of the beds before turning her attention to Gon and Kirishima.

"Are you also here for broken bones, Kirishima-kun?" the woman asked. "Your quirk may protect you to a certain extent but you first years are rather reckless."

The red haired boy laughed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Not today, Recovery Girl. I just came with Bakugou and Gon to uh, keep them company."

Bakugou snorted in the background.

Gon gave a sheepish smile as the older woman's sharp gaze suddenly turned on him.

"Ah yes, Principal Nezu mentioned you would be on campus today, Freecss-kun," she mused. "I did not, however, expect to meet you in my office."

She fixed him with a hard look and the boy felt his ears begin to warm, but she continued before he could respond.

"Though I suppose," she sighed. "I should have expected nothing less since Toshinori was the one who brought you to U.A. That man is mess."

"He sent me to All Might-san's class because he said his own class was boring," Gon replied a little guiltily. "I don't think he thought I was going to, uh, punch someone."

Recovery Girl waved her hand dismissively and directed the green haired boy to an adjoining bed. "I've been in this business for decades, and teenage boys acting impulsive and reckless is just a fact I've come to accept. It doesn't matter what I say to either of you, it probably won't get through your thick skulls," she retorted dryly. "Hand, please."

Gon obediently held out his right hand and the older woman gently examined it. Most of the skin on his fingers and knuckles had been completely burned off, and the raw skin was blistering and unsightly. The top of his hand and forearm were sporadically burned and wholly covered in soot.

"I expected you to have more control than this, Bakugou-kun," Recovery Girl snapped at the blond after examining Gon's hand. "You exploded his hand at point blank range and gave him serious second degree burns. None of the others who have come in after fighting with you have had burns this severe." As an after thought she added, "Excluding Midoriya-kun probably."

"Eh?" Bakugou exclaimed defensively. "I didn't even use that much firepower! I'm not stupid."

Gon was surprised to hear that Bakugou had been holding back because it sure didn't feel like he had. Maybe Kacchan actually did have some sense of decency to not actually try to kill him. Maybe he was just acting tough on the outside?

Gon was quickly pulled out of his thoughts as Recovery Girl quickly pressed a kiss to his damaged hand and it began to heal itself instantly.

"Wow," the boy exclaimed breathlessly. His eyes began to droop immediately afterwards though and he felt as if he hadn't slept in 24 hours.

The older woman gave a warm chuckle and patted him on the shoulder before moving over to Bakugou to examine his hand closer as well.

"It seems you also don't know your own strength, Freecss-kun," the woman jabbed without turning around. "Bakugou-kun's hand looks as bad as Midoriya-kun's usually do when he comes in here."

The blond boy bristled at the mention of Deku, but didn't say anything. He respected Recovery Girl (she was one of the few that he did) and knew better than to go off on an angry rant in front of her.

"Izuku's fingers get broken a lot?" Gon asked curiously.

"Yeah, his quirk's too strong for his body and it breaks his bones," Kirishima chimed in. "It's super manly the way he keeps going through the pain though!"

Bakugou, meanwhile, muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "fucking Deku can't handle his shitty quirk" but Recovery Girl chose to ignore it. She kissed his hand as well, and moved to her desk to get some gauze and sports tape to wrap up his fingers while they were healing.

"Come to think of it, your quirk is pretty similar to Midoriya's, Gon," Kirishima mused. "You have some pretty manly strength."

"I don't have a quirk," Gon said for what he felt was the hundredth time.

Bakugou slammed his left hand down on the table next to the bed he was sitting on. "You clearly fucking do!"

Recovery Girl fixed the blond with a death glare for his crass language and he ground his teeth as she tightened the bandage on his ring finger a little more than necessary.

"Then what did you hit Bakugou with, my dude?" Kirishima asked in disbelief.

"My fist?" Gon tried. He wasn't very keen on revealing the fact that his nen had popped up out of nowhere, especially since nobody in this world seemed to know what nen or aura was in the fist place. He was only met with three blank stares though.

"The damage to Bakugou-kun's hand was too extreme for you to have merely used your fist and no other power behind it," Recovery Girl told to the small boy.

"Well..." Gon said nervously. "I might have accidentally used my nen but I didn't mean to and I thought it was gone I promise," the boy quickly rambled his explanation.

"Nen? Is that the name of your quirk?" Kirishima asked.

Gon shook his head. "I don't think it's a quirk but I don't know exactly how to describe it to you..."

Before any of the other three in the room could comment or ask more questions, All Might made his entrance.

"I am here!" he practically shouted as he entered the office.

"Tone it down, All Might, this is just my office not a battlefield," Recovery Girl reprimanded the #1 Hero.

The muscular blond immediately became sheepish. "My apologizes Chiyo. How are Young Bakugou and Young Gon doing?" he asked at a more reasonable volume.

"They'll be fine," the older woman said dismissively. "You should teach them how to hold back though. They just go at it with all they have without regard for the consequences of their actions."

"Ah, yes," All Might agreed awkwardly. That was a great idea, but that would also make him a giant hypocrite. Instead he tried to change the subject. "Would it be possible to get an X-ray of Young Gon's foot while we are here?"

"Certainly, I'm also curious," Recovery Girl replied, letting the subject of her previous scolding drop.

"Why do I need an X-ray?" Gon asked in confusion.

"To see if you really are quirkless as you say," the older woman informed him with a pat on his cheek.

The boy was confused as to how an X-ray could tell them if he had a quirk or not but he went along with it anyways. Maybe it was technology specific to this world.

A paper and pen were handed to the green haired boy. "Sign this form of consent for the X-ray," the nurse told him. "Most places would require a parent signature for minors but U.A. has always been flexible."

The boy stared at the page in dismay, not even registering half of what the older woman had said. He couldn't read any of it. Gon nervously glanced towards the old woman but she was busy setting up the X-ray machine. Oh well then, hopefully there was nothing weird in the consent form. He quickly signed his name at the bottom and handed the paper back to her when she returned to his side.

A quick glance at the page became a double-take as her eyes found their way to his odd signature.

"Freecss-kun, what did you sign here?" she asked incredulously.

"My name?" Gon tried.

"In what language?"

"The one we're speaking?"

"This isn't Japanese."

"I don't understand the writing system here," Gon admitted. He then pointed to his signature. "This is the only written language I know."

Bakugou let out a not so quiet "the fuck?" and Kirishima blinked in disbelief.

All Might spoke to support the poor boy though. "Toshinori told me about your circumstances, Young Gon, and he will take you to the support department later to get a translator for you."

Gon's face lit up at that statement and he likely would have jumped up to hug All Might if it weren't for Recovery Girl placing a lead shield over his leg and positioning the X-ray machine on his foot.

The results came back quickly, and Recovery Girl was able to resolutely say that Gon had the toe joint that marked him as quirkless.

The boys were shooed out of her office immediately after, and they all left with more questions than when they arrived.

* * *

Since it was near the end of the school day, Gon was sent to Nezu's office while All Might ushered Bakugou and Kirishima back to the 1A classroom. Gon found himself standing in front of the principal's door for the second time that day feeling even more apprehensive than he had the first time. After all, he had promised the principal to stay out of trouble and had already managed to ruin that trust over the course of an hour or so.

A muffled "come in" was uttered from the other side of the door, so Gon steeled his nerves and pushed the door open. He took a seat in the same place he had earlier, and his large eyes gazed into the principal's expectantly.

"I do not think you should be invited back to U.A., Freecss-san," Nezu said bluntly.

The boy lowered his eyes shamefully and felt his shoulders sag. "I'm sorry Nezu-san. I really didn't mean to."

"U.A. and Class 1A in particular have come under scrutiny lately over our staff's failure to protect our students against outside threats. We know nothing about you besides what you have told us, and even then we have only your word. There is no way to know if you are actually a spy for our enemies, however unlikely that may be," the mouse continued.

Realizing that whatever he said would be called into question, Gon kept quiet.

"And the fact that you lost control today against a student shows that you are both a danger to others as well as yourself," Nezu lectured. "You are not a U.A. student and therefore not our responsibility to 'save', if you will."

"I understand that," Gon insisted. "But I'm serious when I said that I didn't mean to do what I did. My nen came back out of nowhere. I haven't been able to access my aura in months. I'm just as lost as you are..."

Nezu's eyes gained a sudden spark. "Is that so? That _is_ curious. I have read theoreticals on nen but am not that well versed in the topic. However, I do understand that nen does not just _disappear_."

Gon let out a nervous chuckle. "Well I did something pretty extreme...and when I woke up afterwards it was gone. Which is why I don't understand how it came back today for a second. Even now I can't feel my aura at all."

"I see, I will have to look into this issue. Perhaps we can find a solution for your problem and satiate my intellectual curiosity together, Freecss-kun," the principal replied while rubbing his chin.

"Eh?" Gon exclaimed in confusion. "I thought you said I was getting kicked out and couldn't come back?"

Nezu let out a slightly sadistic laugh. "Ah yes, that was just the official principal talk. I wouldn't be letting my new case study get away so easily," he said dismissively. "Take a seat outside my office, Toshinori should be by to pick you up soon."

Gon hurriedly gave a bow to the principal and thanked him before heading for the door.

"And Freecss-kun," Nezu called out to the boy. "If you wander off I _will_ be forced to remove you permanently from U.A. grounds."

The boy sweat dropped and nodded his understanding before closing the door. He _definitely_ wasn't planning on doing exactly that before Nezu told him not too...

True to the principal's word, Yagi-san appeared not long after Gon sat down. He told Gon he needed to speak to the principal first before they could go home. The door was well sound proofed; Gon was unable to hear any of their conversation. Not that he was trying very hard to eavesdrop, but he was curious at least. Toshinori returned a little more haggard looking than he was before speaking to the principal, but didn't comment on it.

The two made their way to the faculty parking lot. Gon didn't see any of the students he had met earlier on their way there, and maybe that was for the best right now. They were probably dying to ask a million questions that nobody really had answers for.

Gon recounted the entire incident to Yagi-san who seemed to accept what Gon said without judgement, unlike the rest of the people he had tried to explain the situation to earlier. Instead he suggested ways in which Gon may try to recall his power and get back in touch with it. The green haired boy appreciated the gesture.

When they arrived back at Yagi's home, Gon immediately left for his room to meditate and try to coax out his aura from wherever it had been hiding for over half a year. It was incredibly frustrating though, because no matter how hard Gon tried to focus, he still felt nothing. It was like nothing had ever happened at all.

A few hours later (Gon had lost track of time and wasn't really sure how long he'd been trying to meditate) a soft knock at his door pulled Gon out of his troubled state and he released the tension in his body with a loud sigh. In retrospect, meditation didn't work in the first place if he was tense so really he'd just wasted a good few hours of his life on something doomed to fail from the beginning.

Toshinori stuck his gaunt face in the doorway and informed the boy that Naomasa had come to visit Gon. The boy immediately sprang up and made his way downstairs, eager for a change of pace from what he'd been doing.

Once all three were seated at the blond's kitchen table, the detective spoke.

"I've finally managed to find a temporary place for you, Freecss-kun," he said. There were dark bags under his eyes and he reeked of coffee.

"Please call me Gon, Naomasa-san," the boy insisted.

"Alright, Gon," the detective agreed. "But as I was saying, there's a middle aged couple willing to take you in for the time being while we try and figure out a way to get you back home. They're very kind and have been hosts for other misplaced teenagers as well before they can get back on their feet, so the couple will be very understanding of your situation."

"I have to leave Yagi-san?" Gon asked. "I like it here." The boy was unaccustomed to adults (besides Mito-san at home) making decisions for him, and it rubbed him the wrong way how they treated him as if he wasn't able to be responsible for himself.

The two men exchanged looks of surprise.

"If you're going to try to control what I can do or where I can go I'll probably just leave," Gon admitted to the two.

"That's not an option," Naomasa sighed. "You're thirteen, you can't just be let out into the world on your own. That's dangerous and incredibly irresponsible on our parts."

"But I've never had a problem with it before," Gon frowned. "Really it's fine."

"Maybe so," Toshinori said gently. "But this isn't your world, Gon. You don't know what dangers you could be unknowingly stumbling into until it's too late."

The boy let out a huff.

"Though I do believe that it would be in everyone's best interest for you to stay with me," the gaunt blond man admitted.

Two pairs of eyes snapped to Toshinori in surprise.

"After his day at U.A. today, I believe the teachers there are the best to handle his situation," Yagi clarified.

"You mean it, Yagi-san?" Gon asked, excitement bubbling into his voice.

"Yes, especially with what happened during All Might's class. Principal Nezu has taken an interest in you, Gon."

Naomasa gave Toshinori a look that said 'explain' but the blond man just shook his head as if to say 'I'll tell you later'.

With that settled, the detective soon took his leave, grumbling about a frustrating serial killer case and ghosts as he walked out the door.

Yagi and Gon ate dinner together and after that the boy returned to his room, presumably to continue meditating.

Toshinori let out a long sigh as he sunk into his living room couch. He hadn't been this mentally exhausted in a long time, not in this way at least. Were all children this difficult to keep up with? Midoriya had always been so polite and tried to help Toshinori out during the months they spent training, but with Gon it was like the boy just recklessly charged ahead and left everyone else behind to clean up his mess. The other 1A students were generally good kids as well. Bakugou was rough around the edges, but he was driven in his goal at least.

The gaunt man cringed as he thought back on the moment that Bakugou and Gon had collided during class. All Might's first thought had been ' _oh shit, Nezu is going to kill me_ '. Instead of yelling into his intercom for them to stop, he opted to immediately take off running to intervene himself. The last time Bakugou went too far resulted in Midoriya being severely injured. The #1 Hero refused to stand by and allow something like that to happen again.

Later, after he'd gotten all the students back to their classroom and dragged Aizawa out of his office to watch them for the last few minutes of class, Toshinori made his way to Nezu's office where he had sent Gon earlier. All Might had texted the principal to let him know what had happened, and for that reason he felt dread building up in his body every step he took towards the mouse's office.

The principal did nothing to ease his worries when he entered the office either.

"Toshinori, what did I say about your little guest causing trouble?" Nezu asked threateningly.

"It was in self defense, if that makes it any better," All Might replied apprehensively.

"Oh?" Nezu asked dangerously.

"Bakugou instigated," Toshinori clarified.

"Ah," Nezu replied, and most of the tension left his body. "That explains a lot."

The gaunt blond nodded, unsure of what else to say.

"You will continue bringing Freecss to U.A.," Nezu said. "He's caught my interest."

Toshinori's eyes widened in surprise before narrowing warily.

"Is catching your interest a good or bad thing?"

Nezu smiled neutrally. "I suppose we'll see."

After a few more words, Toshinori left the office mentally drained but relieved.

He was pulled out of his musings by the buzz of his phone. It was a message from Aizawa.

 _teaching hand to hand combat tomorrow morning since your exercise showed how incompetent most of the brats are. be there._

All Might sent a confirmation and picked himself up from the couch to go collapse on his bed instead. So much for sleeping in a little tomorrow.

* * *

The next morning Gon found himself back at U.A. bright and early because Toshinori had a class first period (a cover up for Toshinori's real reason for being there). Just like the day before, Yagi left the boy in the hands of All Might after the gaunt man very insistently told Gon that his class was the worst and he didn't want Gon to have to suffer through it.

Which brought Gon to his current predicament, walking into the gym with All Might only to come face to face with the same class he'd been with yesterday. Twenty pairs of eyes all bored into the boy at once, though one glare was magnified around a thousand times more than the others.

There was a brief stalemate as Gon nervously glanced around at the students and nobody said anything, but luckily a new voice spoke up.

"Is this the new problem child, All Might?"

Gon's eyes were drawn to a messy looking man with scraggly long hair and the worst dark circles he'd ever seen. His heavy lidded red eyes were sizing up the green haired boy.

"Problem child is a little harsh, wouldn't you say?" the blond hero replied.

"No," Aizawa deadpanned. "The fact that he's here at all already makes him a problem child."

All Might just sighed.

"Anyways, as I was saying before _All Might_ came in late, you all will be practicing your hand to hand combat skills and sparring against each other. I watched the film of your Hero Class exercise from yesterday and it was abysmal," Aizawa intoned.

Some of the students groaned and sputtered indignantly, while others smiled shyly in acceptance of their teacher's observation.

The scraggly man cleared his throat to get the students' attention back. "The Sports Festival is coming up in less than two weeks, so most of our gym time will be spent preparing for it. Every year without fail there is a 1v1 battle stage, though the exact rules and format change. Your quirks can't do everything for you, especially if you've got a bad match up with someone whose quirk cancels yours out. You need to know at least a couple basic moves to defend and attack in that case. For today's class you'll be pairing up and sparring for five minutes. Once the time is up switch partners. The goal is for you all to learn from each other. I will be watching and decide who needs extra lessons to catch up to the others who already have experience."

His short speech over with, Aizawa shooed the students away to the practice mats where they began to loudly self organize. Out of the corner of his eye, the man noticed the way that All Might's new problem child, Gon Freecss was his name, was watching the students longingly and twitching in their direction.

"Gon, you're not participating," Aizawa bluntly told him. The boy's face immediately fell but Aizawa was a seasoned teacher on resisting puppy eyes. "You can watch if you want but that's it."

If it was possible, the pout on Gon's face became even more pronounced. But he didn't push the subject and instead asked, "How did you know my name?"

"After what you pulled yesterday it would be impossible not to know your name," the underground hero snorted.

Gon made a strangled noise and opted not to ask anything else. He turned his attention to the 1A students instead.

Some were faring better than others. A few students were dominating while a couple were very lost. Most fell in the middle category of kind-of-know-what's-going-on-but-not-completely-sure. Gon let out a puff of air and plopped himself down onto the gym floor to watch while trying to ignore his muscles that ached to get in on the action.

After five rounds, Aizawa called a break. Multiple students made a beeline for Gon and he found himself crowded.

"Good to see you again little dude!" a loud voice called out. It wasn't hard to tell that it belonged to Kirishima.

"Yeah we weren't sure if you'd be back after yesterday," the pink girl, Mina, chimed in. Gon liked her already, she'd been very friendly so far.

"It was pretty cool the way you stood up to Bakugou like that," a blond boy said. "He's one of the strongest in the class."

Gon just nodded, a little dazed by all the attention.

"I'm Kaminari Denki by the way," the blond introduced himself.

"We already met yesterday but I'm Kirishima Eijiro," the red head said.

By now a few other students were making their way over to the small group as well.

The invisible girl squealed as she crouched down in front of Gon.

"You're so _cute_! Doesn't he remind you guys of a younger Midoriya?"

"What?" the boy in question called out from a few feet away where he'd been standing with Iida and Uraraka.

"Now that you mention it his quirk is pretty similar to Midoriya's as well," Asui hummed and pressed a finger to her lips.

Before Gon could deny anything, another voice spoke.

"Yeah we talked about this yesterday," Sero said, having just walked up to the group. "They could be long lost brothers or something."

Aizawa, who heard the entire conversation, called out, "Alright, if you're just going to gossip then your break is over."

The students began to protest before they were silenced by a glare from their teacher.

Aizawa took half the class to the far side of the gym where he began to show them basic stances while All Might took the other half to continue sparring. Only one match was going on at a time, so the rest of the students could watch.

Ojiro, Gon learned, was only one formally trained in martial arts and was easily the best at hand to hand combat. Considering his quirk was his tail, he needed that advantage. Shoji could use his size to his advantage. Sato seemed to know some moves befitting of his large frame as well. Todoroki was almost dainty in the way he fought, though he had a very solid foundation; Yaoyorozu was pretty similar. Midoriya was a little all over the place but he did get some good hits in. It reminded Gon of himself when he was learning. He'd never had any formal training and just figured it out as he went. Even Bisky's training was still pretty unconventional.

Bakugou, on the other hand, was very subdued from yesterday. His right hand was bandaged, which Gon found odd since his own hand was completely healed by now. When All Might asked if the blond boy wanted to sit out since he couldn't use one of his hands, Bakugou just snapped that he was fine. His fighting style was aggressive and a little erratic but that was probably due to being down a hand. He won easily against Mina, who just groaned and picked herself up from the ground where he'd knocked her down.

While two other students made their way to the mats, Mina followed Bakugou back to where he was sitting alone. He loudly told her to leave him alone but winced when he raised his voice.

"Are you sick?" Mina asked him.

"No," he replied.

"Headache?"

"...I guess," he admitted.

She didn't press any further but also didn't move away from him. Judging by the dark circles under his eyes, he didn't have the energy to make her move either.

On the other side of the mats seated by All Might, Gon tried his luck in asking to participate.

"All Might-san, can I spar too?"

"This is Aizawa's class and he said no, so you'll have to follow his rules," the hero replied. Which basically screamed to the boy that All Might wouldn't have a problem with him participating if it weren't for the other teacher.

So Gon asked again after two more matches. And then again. And again.

"Are you sure I can't spar just once?"

"I don't think the other teacher is looking over here."

"Please?"

All Might gave in eventually, clearly not as immune to puppy eyes as Aizawa was. There was only about ten minutes left of class and at a glance Aizawa was diligently teaching the other students. All Might sighed and went with the safest choice by putting Gon up against Ojiro, who was the most responsible and in control of himself during the spars.

The other students, who may or may not have been daydreaming by the end of class, all snapped to attention once they saw Gon step up to the mats.

Ojiro bowed and Gon followed suit. The younger boy reminded himself to hold back and stay in control. As soon as All Might motioned for the match to start, Gon shot forward. His speed surprised Ojiro who threw up a hasty block. He grit his teeth at the force behind the smaller boy's punch but was expecting it after seeing what happened to Bakugou yesterday.

The blond retaliated with a kick to Gon's open side but the boy twisted out of the way and hopped into Ojiro's blind spot. The younger boy landed the first hit of the spar. The tailed boy recovered quickly and lunged for the green haired boy who hadn't expected him to get his bearings back so fast. Ojiro grabbed the smaller boy and flipped him over his shoulder. He gripped Gon's arm in a hold that should have been difficult to get out of, but the green haired boy used a surprising burst of strength to wretch his arm out of the blond's grip.

Gon spun around to sweep Ojiro's feet out from under him and then got back to his feet to put some distance between them. Ojiro caught himself on his way down and pushed himself back up with ease. The two stared at each other, waiting for the other to make the first move.

Aizawa was having none of it though. He'd noticed almost instantly that All Might had given in to the new problem child and with a loathsome sigh made his way over to the other side of the gym.

"Like I said," he ground out with a glare directed at the #1 Hero. "Problem child."

To his credit, All Might only startled minimally but he called the match much to the disappointment of Gon and the other students watching.

The students were subsequently sent back to the locker rooms to change out of their gym uniforms before they headed off to lunch. Gon was hesitantly allowed to go with them since he hadn't brought any food with him.

Once the students and the younger boy had left, Aizawa leveled All Might with a glare and simply said, "You better explain all of this."

* * *

Walking into the cafeteria was an interesting experience for Gon, mostly because he had never been to a proper school before. He was in awe of the way so many uniformed teenagers were weaving their way through the tables to get food or find their friends. The rich aroma of multiple cuisines mixing together into a single smell especially caught his interest, as most of it seemed to be foods he'd never encountered before. A nudge to his shoulder drew him out of his thoughts.

"You look a little dazed just standing there," Mina jokingly told the boy.

Gon smiled up at her. "No, just taking it all in. I've never been to a school before so this is amazing!"

"Wait for real?" Mina asked. "Were you home schooled?"

"Yup, by my aunt Mito-san," Gon chirped.

"I used to wish I was home schooled when I was younger," Ashido mused. "But then I realized how many friends I'd be missing out on. U.A.'s academics are killer though," she bemoaned. "I'm already struggling and we haven't even been in school a month yet. But enough of that, why don't you come sit with me and my friends? Would hate to someone adorable as you sitting alone," she said with a smile and a wink.

If Gon were any other boy he might have blushed, but he was long accustomed to older girls and women doting on him so he just smiled back at the pink haired girl and agreed happily.

That is, until he saw who Mina liked to sit with. Eijiro was cool. The tape guy had also been nice to him. Denki was super friendly and outgoing. But Kacchan? Gon was pretty sure he would throw an explosive fit if the green haired boy sat down at his table. But Mina waved it off as fine so he just went ahead and sat down next to Eijirou, who was now serving as a buffer between Bakugou and Gon.

The explosive blond didn't even seem to notice that Gon and Mina had sat down, too busy grumbling about how his head hurt and his body ached and it wouldn't go away damn it. His voice was more subdued than normal. His tray of food was barely touched.

"You probably just have a migraine bro," Kirishima tried to tell Bakugou.

"I don't get migraines," the blond countered. "And I _don't_ get sick. So what the fuck?"

"Excessive testosterone can't fight off every germ," Mina spoke up, clearly not afraid of the blond boy's wrath.

Surprisingly, Bakugou was pretty mild in his response. "Fuck off pinky. My immune system is the best."

"Nobody's immune system is perfect though," Kaminari chimed in. "I know migraines aren't a sickness but I get them a lot because of my quirk. I've got Excedrin if you want some Bakugou."

"Don't let Iida find out you carry pills with you," Sero snorted. "He'd flip shit about how you're supposed to leave medication at the nurse's office."

The others at the table laughed at the thought. Bakugou just let out an annoyed sound.

"Don't need your damn pills," he ground out.

"You should probably go to see Recovery Girl," Kirishima tried. "No point in just suffering through whatever it is that's up with your body, Bakubro."

"M'fine," the blond said stubbornly. "Was just there yesterday, I ain't goin' back again today."

"Oh come on, this is a completely different reason for going!" the red haired boy exclaimed. "Going to the nurse isn't showing weakness or anything like that."

That must have been the wrong thing to say though, because Bakugou's hands instantly lit up with tiny explosions. Which was then followed by a long string of curses because he had forgotten that his right hand was still not completely healed, and the flash of light from his hands had sent a fresh wave of pain through his head.

So absorbed in his own problems and his classmates annoying (helping) him, the blond hadn't even noticed that Gon was there yet. To be fair, the younger boy hadn't said anything and everyone was distracted by the fact that Bakugou wasn't his normal self. Kirishima's larger form also obscured Gon from view for the most part. The others at the table had waved to Gon and offered him smiles when he sat down, but even they seemed to think that bringing up his presence around Bakugou was a bad idea at the moment.

So instead, Gon was left to his own devices for the most part. And that got him thinking. Kacchan's aches and pains could have been because of soreness from yesterday, being blown onto his back and all. But shouldn't Recovery Girl have fixed something like that? Gon felt perfectly fine when he woke up in the morning, like he'd never been punched with an explosion in the first place. Maybe it was something else. Maybe the blond really did just have a cold and it was bad timing. But then shouldn't his nose be all stuffy and his throat sore too? He hadn't complained of those symptoms. Which left only one other option, Gon realized with horror.

What if Gon had inadvertently awakened Bakugou's nen with his punch yesterday?

It made sense in a terrifying sort of way. Gon's nen had added the extra power behind his punch and had been what sent the blond careening backwards. It hadn't been very strong though, so the green haired boy hadn't even considered that the punch alone would be able to awaken nen. Kind of like how Illumi had been secretly using his nen to manipulate Killua for years but never actually awakened Killua's own aura in the process.

But now Gon wasn't so sure, and he had no way of using gyo to check and see if Bakugou was leaking aura or not. A nervous feeling began to creep up the green haired boy's throat as the gravity of what he might have done sank in. Bakugou wouldn't die or be permanently disabled, Gon was sure at least. But he had no idea what kind of repercussions there would be if the blond's aura had actually been awakened.

He resolved to figure out the mystery of the hole he'd dug himself into on this one, both for Bakugou's sake and his own. But first, Gon would have to find a way to reawaken his own aura. And _that_ was going to be a challenge all on its own.

* * *

 **Sorry about the wait guys, college is crazy.**

 **Is it possible for a quirk user to use nen? You'll have to find out in later chapters. The dynamic between quirks and nen is going to be an interesting one so look forward to that! They're going to be played off of each other in some particular ways :)**

 **I'm finding that there are a lot of details I want to include in the story but there simply isn't enough for all of it. I don't want to make this thing incredibly long and dense since there's a lot of plot we have to cover and things are supposed to be picking up soon. It's hard to find the right balance, but I'll keep trying!**

 **As always, leave a review if you enjoyed and let me know if I've made any mistakes!**


	8. Chapter VIII

CHAPTER VIII

"What _are_ you?" Kesagiriman couldn't help but ask the electrified boy.

No kid should ever be this insane! The boy was already crazy for trying to kill a pro hero, but then the fact that he grabbed electrified wires for a power up despite the high probability that it could kill him added a whole other level of insanity. And now he was coating his entire body in electricity and moving faster than the eye could track. _What the hell?_

Killua didn't deign the pro hero with a response, he just _moved_.

It was through instincts alone that the hero managed to avoid a fatal blow as the boy covered the distance between them at unseen speeds.

Pain erupted in Kesagiriman's right shoulder blade as he felt hot blood begin to pour down his back. He hadn't managed to avoid the attack completely. However, the pain brought him back to reality and he was able to refocus on his opponent. So the boy actually had an electricity quirk. That would explain his speed, but not his strength, the man mused. He pushed the thought out of his mind for the moment though; he had more pressing matters. Speaking of which, the now electrified boy was currently lunging at him.

Now that the kid had his full attention, the speed hero realized that the boy was actually moving at speeds he could track. The hero evaded another jab and bent backwards to avoid a high kick. His shoulder blade screamed at him, but he didn't have the luxury to think about it right now. The man issued his own counter attack and clearly took the boy by surprise as his hit landed. The kid was expecting his electricity to make him faster than Kesagiriman, but his assumption had been wrong. But dear god that electricity hurt like a bitch.

Sirens began wailing in the distance.

The began trading blows, Kesagiriman still edging out on top for speed, but now that Killua was almost as fast his stronger attacks were clearly taking a toll on the man.

Another edge the hero had over Killua was that the boy was rather predictable; he kept going for the Kesagiriman's throat like he wanted to finish the hero off in one fell swoop. He was pressed for time and consequentially was sloppy. This made it easier for the hooded hero to evade, but didn't give him many openings to attack either.

The sirens were getting closer.

Killua swore to himself and frantically tried to think of a way to end the fight. Clearly his tactics for every other target weren't working this time. With no extra time to think, he had to go with the first thing that came to his mind.

Instead of aiming a clawed hand at the hero like he had been doing the entire fight, Killua lashed out with an open palm blazing with electrified nen. The hero was taken off guard with the sudden switch up and the boy's hand connected with the hero's chest. The boy willed his nen to flood the man's body. Kesagiriman jerked once and then became frozen in place save for the slight tremors that were assaulting his body.

Killua took a deep breath and stepped back to admire his work. The man was looking down at the boy with an utterly terrified look in his eyes (the only part of his face visible), completely unable to move. Killua had paralyzed him after all.

"You weren't supposed to be _this_ fucking hard to kill, old man," the boy groaned. "Seriously, and you were so close to letting the police know what I look like too."

The hero tried to move his mouth, to move _anything_ to retort, but found that he couldn't. He couldn't even feel at this point. There had been a brief moment of overwhelming pain before nothing. The numbness was probably the most disconcerting part.

The boy allowed his hand to be coated in a layer of that damned electricity and held it up in front of the man's face like a taunt before uttering the single syllable, "Bye."

The next thing Kesagiriman knew, his vision was slowly tilting and the ground was rapidly approaching. His world went black before he felt the impact, and then there was nothing.

Two pro heroes arrived at the scene a few seconds later, police footsteps close behind. However, all they saw as the turned the corner of the alley was a bright blue flash before the narrow road became dark again and they laid their eyes on the beheaded hero's body. The villain mentioned in the radio transmission was nowhere to be found.

* * *

Killua released his Godspeed form in the back alley by the League's bar after coming to a sudden halt. He leaned his back up against the gritty brick wall and let out a long breath he hadn't known he was holding. That entire altercation had been way too close for comfort. Not only had he underestimated his target, but he'd almost been found out by law enforcement as well.

The pale boy winced as the adrenaline began to wear off and his heartbeat came back under control. He took stock of his injury and let out a sigh - the hand that he'd grabbed the telephone wire with was a mess. Electricity was brutal. His body was conditioned to withstand large amounts of it, but taking on thousands of voltages at once was not the greatest idea. On the other hand (ha), although the hero had landed multiple hits on Killua's body, none of them had actually left a mark, so that was one less thing the boy had to worry about. Kesagiriman had been fast, but that was all. It was almost embarrassing that Killua had to result to his best technique to match the man in speed honestly. There was probably a way around it, but Killua had been caught off-guard. Pro heroes in general looked so ridiculous prancing around on TV that Killua hadn't taken them as seriously as he should have. And that slip up almost cost him a lot of trouble.

Perhaps he should develop a new technique that just focused on speed without the extreme amounts of electricity needed to power Godspeed. Probably a good idea.

After another minute of allowing himself to catch his breath and relax his tense muscles a little, Killua collected his bearings and put on a straight face before stepping inside.

The boy strode casually into the bar, or at least as casual as one can be with frizzy, static hair and a slightly charred hand. If his body allowed, Kurogiri would have raised an eyebrow as the boy smoothly slid onto one of the bar stools. Unfortunately, the warp user's face was not that expressive so he settled for fixing the boy with a _look_ after setting down the wine glass he had been drying with a towel.

To the kid's credit, he didn't crack under Kurogiri's gaze and simply stared back.

There was a brief stalemate before Killua rolled his eyes and averted his gaze to admire the well stocked bar that Kurogiri kept.

"You any good at mixing drinks?" the boy asked, blatantly ignoring the topic of his injuries.

The wispy man scoffed. "I should think so. I am the bartender for a four star restaurant in Tokyo."

Killua stared at Kurogiri incredulously.

"I use my portals to receive orders and send drinks," the quirk user elaborated. "Unfortunately villainy is bad for my public image."

The pale boy snorted. This was exactly why he was working so hard to keep his assassin identity away from the public eye.

"Alright then, make me the best hot chocolate I've ever tasted," the boy challenged. He really needed something relaxing after such a close call (with law enforcement). Most of his nerve endings still felt as if they were on fire and his hand still smelled faintly of burned flesh. Probably because it was. Grabbing high voltage cables was never the smartest idea. And chocolate was his favorite food, so what better to relax with?

"That's hardly a challenge," the warp user scoffed and turned around to gather the ingredients. "I'm surprised you didn't ask for alcohol to 'forget the pain', or something asinine like that."

Killua shrugged. "I really don't care what's in it as long as it tastes good. I doubt whatever you put in it could affect me anyways." The Zoldycks were all trained to resist the effects of poison, and alcohol fell into that category. His parents had been spiking his drinks since he was an infant to build up his tolerance.

"That's what they all say," Kurogiri mused. "And the next thing they know they're waking up half naked in a run down McDonald's parking lot the next morning."

"Speaking from experience?" Killua inferred.

"Of course not," Kurogiri lied as he set a steaming mug of rich hot chocolate down in front of the small boy. Since he was right in front of the boy now, the man took note of how the boy's pale skin accentuated the discoloration of his battered body and the way he was hiding one of his hands. Kurogiri refrained from asking outright what happened though. He knew the boy wouldn't give him a straight answer.

Killua inhaled deeply and instantly felt his muscles relax as his senses were enveloped by the comforting aroma of cocoa, spices, and cream. He took a large gulp and almost sighed out loud as the warmth spread throughout his body. It was pretty obvious that the temperature of the hot cocoa wasn't the only warmth he felt though.

"You spiked my drink," the blue eyed boy observed.

"Possibly," the warp user said neutrally. Alcohol in moderation did help to calm nerves and ease aches and pains (something the boy clearly was in need of). And if Kurogiri happened to have an expensive cream liqueur that mixed well with chocolate who was he to _not_ use it?

"It's good," Killua hummed as he took another sip.

Kurogiri nodded. Of course it was, he had made it after all.

True to the boy's word, he exhibited no signs of being inebriated even after finishing the large mug of boozy hot chocolate. Any other child of the same height and weight would certainly have been flushed by now. Just another added mystery to the pale haired boy's name, the wispy man thought with a shake of his head.

A name the boy had never disclosed in the first place, Kurogiri internally snorted.

The boy disappeared through a door that led to the residential area of the building and the warp user absentmindedly cleaned the mug before checking the news online. He expected to have to scour a bit to find out whatever the boy had done (it would undoubtedly be something worthy of making the news), but as it turned out he didn't have to put in any effort at all. The top article as soon as he opened the app brazenly stated exactly what he was looking for.

 _PRO HERO FELLED BY THE GHOST_

Well, Shigaraki would definitely want to see this.

* * *

Killua slept in the next morning. When he awoke, the sun was high in the sky and the bandages he'd used to wrap his hand the night before were soaked with pus and blood. He let out a small noise of annoyance and dutifully changed the bandages after washing out the burn and applying some antibiotic cream. It shouldn't take too long to heal but it definitely wouldn't be instant. He absentmindedly channeled a bit of nen into his hand to speed up the process.

It would be nice to go to a hospital, somebody was bound to have some kind of healing quirk around there, but then they'd hackle the boy for official documents he didn't have. Maybe Kurogiri knew an underground healer or doctor. Or maybe not, Killua thought with a snort, since Tomura had been injured at USJ days ago and was still wrapped up in bandages. Chizome _had_ to know someone since he got into so many fights with pro heroes. Maybe he was worth seeking out.

Killua was so caught up in his pondering that he was woefully unprepared for what was waiting for him as he tried to leave the building.

Both Tomura and Kurogiri were sitting by the bar pouring over multiple tablets when Killua walked in. They were discussing something seriously, but as soon as the boy stepped foot into the main bar area their attention immediately snapped to him.

"So when were you going to tell us you have an electricity quirk, you little shit?" Shigaraki opened with.

Killua stopped in his tracks. How would they even know about that? He'd destroyed the camera on the street and the only witness was dead. Unless...

"The autopsy revealed that Kesagiriman's body was flooded with electricity before he was killed," Kurogiri supplied on behalf of the manchild. "The police and pro heroes who responded to the hero's call all said they saw a flash of blue light for a brief second when they arrived at the scene as well."

"It was probably just a police car," the boy lied nonchalantly. "They've all got their heads too far up their asses to see straight anyways."

Kurigiri wasn't amused by Killua's explanation whatsoever, but Shigaraki couldn't help the little snort that escaped him.

"Regardless," the warp user sighed. "You lied to us about your quirk, which raises questions about other information you may be withholding from us."

"You never asked so I never said anything," Killua said with a roll of his eyes.

"That was like the second thing we ever asked you, brat," Shigaraki reminded him.

"As if I knew what a quirk was then," Killua shot back.

"Enough!" Kurogiri commanded before the two could go off on an aggressive tangent. "There is no point in arguing over schematics. The boy can explain his quirk to us now."

"Like hell I will," Killua snorted and made a break for it before the warp user could trap him back in the bar. His aura flared to life in his legs and he was gone, the door lazily swinging shut behind him.

Once he was sure that Kurogiri wouldn't be able to find him, the pale boy released his nen and slowed down to a normal walking pace before stepping out onto the sidewalk from a hidden alley about a kilometer away from the League's bar.

He had taken off in the opposite direction of his destination in case he was being followed, so he had a long walk to backtrack to Sato Sweet Shop. Killua arrived around noon and found it to be crowded. The white haired boy made a face to himself and made his way to the back of the line, occupying himself with the lunch menu in the meantime. He didn't even know they made sandwiches since he'd always had a one track mind for their desserts. And the name Sato _Sweet Shop_ really didn't help his assumption either.

Killua absentmindedly checked his phone as the line shuffled forward. Kurogiri hadn't sent him anything, though that wasn't surprising considering they'd exchanged maybe three words over text before. Tomura just sent a middle finger emoji, which was pretty characteristic of him. Killua left him on read and slid his phone back into his pocket. That would probably infuriate the manchild more than any insult the boy could throw back and the thought made Killua crack a small smile.

A few minutes later he arrived at the front counter and Sato-san's eyes lit up when she saw him, the stress of the lunch rush momentarily fading from her face.

"I thought you weren't going to make it today!" Sato-san exclaimed. "You're normally here pretty early in the morning."

Killua shrugged and couldn't help but return her infectious smile. "I slept in," he explained.

She laughed. "Pretty befitting of a teenage boy! It _is_ the weekend after all. So what will you have today? Feeling adventurous enough to try one of our sandwiches?"

"Yeah I'll take one of every dessert like usual and also whichever sandwich is your favorite."

"Coming right up," Sato-san chirped as Killua handed over the cash and told her to keep the change. "Unfortunately some of our pastries have already sold out today since it's lunch time but they were nothing you haven't tried before."

Killua nodded in acquiescence as she quickly and efficiently boxed the desserts and gave him his receipt. However, right as she was about to hand over his boxes, she noticed his wrapped hand and pulled back. She glanced over towards the tables and called out, "Rikido come take these boxes please!"

Killua flushed a little at her overprotective notion and tried to insist he could carry them and his hand was fine but she was hearing none of it. So Killua made his way over to the last open table as the son of the owners carried his desserts for him.

"Sorry about my mom," Sato chuckled. "She just wants to help."

"It's fine," Killua grumbled as he slid down into his chair. Sato nodded at the pale boy before going back to busing the tables so more people could sit down.

Killua had only made it through three slices of cake before the husband delivered his fancy looking sandwich. The boy nodded his thanks and Sato-san smiled warmly at him before returning to the kitchen to fill more orders.

The sandwich was almost as good as the desserts, and by that Killua meant it was amazing. He made a mental note to come during lunch time more often. After demolishing the sandwich, the small assassin went back to his desserts, savoring every bite. The lunch rush soon started to die down, and the Sato's were able to slow down to a comfortable pace that didn't require the three of them constantly working at a hundred miles per hour.

Killua knew it was just a startup family business, but he wondered if the family could hire another worker. Their shop was open seven days a week and it was only the family working. Not to mention the son was at school all week. Killua wondered if there was anything he could do. He wasn't one to just offer help to others, he looked out for the interests of very few. However, when these people made the best sweets he'd ever tasted in his life, he thought it might be worth it to expand his circle.

The pale boy was drawn out of his thoughts as a group of high school students walked into the sweet shop and loudly made their presence known.

"Sato, my man!" a guy with spiky red hair bellowed.

Said boy whipped his head up from where he was wiping down some tables a few feet away and his face instantly warped into one of happiness.

"You guys came!" he exclaimed.

"Of course we came!" an energetic blond boy replied enthusiastically. "Once you told us your parents owned a sweet shop we _had_ to stop by!"

"This is a very quaint shop," a short girl with suspiciously frog-like features complimented. "It's really nice."

A seemingly walking, talking uniformed squealed. "It's so cute, I love it!"

A tall blond boy with a large tail smiled in agreement before glancing behind himself. "Don't you guys think we should order so we don't hold up the line?"

"Step right up!" Sato-san declared as Rikido ushered his classmates to the front counter. "It's great to meet Rikido's classmates!"

Killua averted his gaze and went back to his chocolate cheesecake for a few moments of blessed peace before the loud group oh so conveniently chose the table next to his. Rikido joined them after getting the approval from his parents, who had the shop under control on their own.

Since Killua was only a foot or so away from the high schoolers, he couldn't help but eavesdrop on most of their conversation. They began by talking about their homework for the weekend and complaining about how brutal their teachers were. The pale assassin couldn't help but be intrigued what their teachers had them doing to get this kind of response. They must all be UA students since Sato was, and it was interesting to hear about their experiences from an inside perspective. Since they were being trained to fight villains, Killua wondered if any of their teachers were similar to Bisky or Wing.

The conversation soon turned to the news, and ironically, the Ghost.

"Did you guys see that Kesagiriman was killed by the Ghost?" Ojiro asked the group.

Kaminari groaned loudly. "He has an electricity quirk! What are people going to think of me now that I have a similar quirk? What if everyone starts thinking I'm a villain!"

"There are a lot of heroes with electricity quirks," Tsuyu reminded the blond practically.

"Oh yeah? Name one right now," Kaminari challenged.

The group was silent for a moment.

"Uh..."

"That's what I thought!" the blond bemoaned loudly.

"Then you can just show your stuff at the Sports Festival so everyone knows you're a good guy!" Kirishima suggested.

Kaminari sniffed before saying, "Yeah, I guess that works..."

Killua made a mental note to check what the Sports Festival was about since the students made it sound important.

He began to tune out the UA kids so he could focus on finishing his desserts, and a few minutes later he was collecting the empty boxes to toss into the trash. All three of the family members waved goodbye to him, even Rikido who was busy with his friends. The students all turned to look at the white haired boy curiously, but with a short sentence from Rikido who explained that Killua was a regular, they went back to their own conversation.

Killua wandered out onto the street and aimlessly picked a direction. What should he do now? He would have to return to the bar at some point and face the wrath of Shigaraki and Kurogiri who would undoubtedly be annoyed he ran out on them earlier. He would also have to find a way to explain his 'electricity quirk' and deter them from trying to further investigate his abilities. That wasn't a conversation Killua was willing to have at the moment, so instead he decided to walk around and look for something to do.

The TV's facing the streets were understandably outraged over the Ghost's actions, and the death of Kesagiriman was the most popular news currently playing. There were sad tributes playing for the speed hero while simultaneously analysists were talking about how all it would take was one good hit for the electricity to fry the hero's body even though he must have been faster than the Ghost.

Now that Killua thought back on it, Kesagiriman hadn't been leaking any aura even after Killua completely flooded the pro hero's system with nen. From what the pale boy understood that should have awakened the hero's aura nodes, but then again Killua himself had never awakened someone's aura so he didn't know the particulars of how it worked. Wing hadn't explained _exactly_ what he did to awaken Gon and Killua's after all. Perhaps there had to be intent to unlock aura nodes, which Killua did not have in mind last night. Or maybe this world operated on a completely different system and nen was a foreign entity. Either way it was a mystery.

It would be interesting to see what nen did to the people here, but Killua had no way of testing theories without potentially unlocking the auras of people that didn't need to be using nen. And unfortunately, his only test subject was already dead.

The white haired boy sighed. He would have to be extremely cautious in what he experimented with. The last thing he wanted was overpowered quirk users throwing around nen as well.

A sudden spike in killing intent stopped Killua in his tracks and he quickly turned to face the direction it was coming from.

 _Speaking of overpowered quirk users..._ Killua thought to himself with an internal snort. He quickly took off in the direction of the bloodlust so he wouldn't miss out.

Arriving a few blocks away at the epicenter of the killing intent, the scene depicted before him was exactly what Killua was expecting to find. A tall female hero in a skintight suit slightly more sexualized than it needed to be lay in a growing pool of blood, her eyes vacant and bloodstained lips parted slightly. The serial killer stood over her corpse loomingly, his large knife dripping with her blood.

After admiring his work for a few more seconds, the Hero Killer sheathed his blade and turned to calmly walk away from the murder scene. Killua tailed the man silently, taking note to mask his presence since the Hero Killer had shown his senses were adept enough to sense the pale boy's bloodlust the last time they met.

After a few minutes of wandering through alleyways, Stain walked back into a run down part of town where he soon slid into an inconspicuous early 20th century building and began to clean his weapons.

The small assassin walked right up behind the Hero Killer and a mischievous smile made its way onto his face as he shoved his hands into his pockets and spoke out of nowhere.

"Yo," Killua said conversationally. The Hero Killer jumped and instantly swung the jagged knife he'd been cleaning. The boy easily maneuvered around the blade that would have gone straight through his skull had he stood still and waited for the older man to recognize him.

Halfway through another swipe at his silent stalker, Stain finally got a good luck at who he was attacking and pulled back.

"Jesus, kid, you scared me," Chizome chided breathlessly.

"Who's that?" Killua asked.

"Who's what?" the man replied in confusion.

"Jesus."

The Hero Killer let out a sharp laugh. "Nobody I'll ever meet. What are you doing out here stalking me, kid?"

The boy's eye twitched. "My name is Killua, not kid. And I just happened to be in the area," he explained. He didn't mention the fact that he could sense the man's insatiable bloodlust from a few blocks away.

The noseless man eyed the pale boy like he wasn't sure he believed that story, but didn't press any further. Instead he changed the topic to something pertinent for them both. "Not sure if you check the news, but the media thinks we're working together," Chizome informed the boy.

Killua hummed. "Yeah I saw. They try and connect everything we do now just because of that one time."

The Hero Killer gave the smaller boy a strange look. "After what you did last night the heroes are undoubtedly convinced we're working together, kid."

"What's that supposed to mean?" the pale boy asked cautiously.

"You paralyzed a man with electricity, Killua. Who the hell else would they think you're working with?"

Killua groaned. "Great, that means they'll be sending out even more heroes to track us down."

Stain's grotesque mouth spread into a sadistic grin. "Which means I'll have the opportunity to cleanse this world of even more false heroes."

The pale boy scoffed. "Good for you, but I'm trying to keep my identity hidden here."

"And you're doing such a great job with that now that the public knows your quirk," the man replied dryly.

"Nobody knows my face though, so it hardly matters," the boy shrugged dismissively. It wasn't like his techniques were common knowledge. He still had all of his assassin skills hidden away and the only thing about his nen that was revealed was the information that he could, in fact, harness electricity. Not a big deal.

"Now that your electricity quirk is public knowledge they'll think they have you all figured out, which gives you an advantage. They won't be expecting anything else from you," Stain said. "I know there's more to you than what you've shown so far, but I won't hound you about it. You wouldn't have survived this lifestyle if you just had one trick up your sleeve."

"Oh?" Killua asked, intrigued. He hadn't realized how perceptive the serial killing villain was before. From the single encounter they'd had and news articles the man probably read about The Ghost, Stain was already able to deduce that Killua was holding himself back. If he wasn't careful, the older man would probably figure out more about Killua than he was comfortable with sharing.

"I could say the same for you. It's clear your quirk affects people to different degrees," the boy replied, not one to be outdone. He had also done his research on the Hero Killer, and after seeing him in action it was easy to pick up on the signs.

Stain snorted. "The public doesn't even know what my quirk does. They think it has something to do with weapons. The heroes must know but for whatever reason they haven't made the information public knowledge."

Killua smirked at that. People really were dense.

"We think the same way, kid," Chizome mused.

The boy made a face. "Hardly, we're practically opposites. You're killing people self righteously while I'm being forced to kill so I can go home to the two people I care about. I don't know the full implications of what I'm doing to this society by killing semi-important people. Not that I care, but I could really be fucking some stuff up here and I don't even know it."

Stain frowned, but did not seem to share Killua's concern. "Then start being more selective about your targets. You're clearly a major asset to whoever is ordering you around so you should have enough leverage to start making some decisions for yourself. Just because you're in a shit situation doesn't mean you don't have any control."

The man spoke with such easy and certainty that Killua was stunned. He was used to taking shit from no one while travelling the world, but being roped into the League brought the boy back to the days of living on Zoldyck estate and being ordered around constantly without a chance to act on his own. When he finally did what he wanted it estranged him from the family. Perhaps he was subconsciously afraid that if he did the same here, he would lose his chance to return to his world. But there was one thing that Tomura and Kurogiri lacked that his family had. They weren't intimidating or a real threat to Killua.

"They're not pushovers," Killua began, a mischievous light appearing in his eyes. "But I could make them sweat."

The Hero Killer gave a wide, sadistic grin. "That's the spirit."

The two fell silent for a few moments before Killua remembered something he had thought of earlier.

"Know any underground hospitals around here?" the pale boy asked, briefly gesturing to his bandaged hand.

"Not for cheap," Chizome replied. "But I know a guy for when I need it. He admires my work and swore himself to secrecy."

Killua shrugged. "That's fine, I'll gladly blow all of these assholes' money."

The large man gestured for the boy to follow him and they began walking through winding alleyways.

"My offer still stands," the Hero Killer said a few minutes into their walk.

"Hm?" Killua replied.

"You can join me instead of who you're working for now. You'd be a great asset to justice and if my platforms gains enough leverage I'm sure there would be someone who would be willing to assist you in returning to your home."

"That's a big if," the boy said. "I'm not willing to take that risk right now."

The man nodded in acquiescence. "Understandable, but know that you are welcome to join my cause at any point."

"Yeah I was trying to put killing behind me before I got to Japan," Killua grumbled. "So joining your crusade would be pretty counterproductive for me."

"It's very rare for those so young to kill purposely unless they have quirks that are predisposed to it," Chizome informed. "What put you on that path?"

Killua was silent for a moment, contemplating what to reveal about himself. Eventually he said, "I was raised to be an assassin from birth. This is all I was ever taught by my family."

"Sounds lonely," Stain hummed.

"You're one to talk," the boy snarkily replied.

"At least I had a life before I took this path."

"I have a life," the boy replied with a pout. "I even have a best friend."

"Must be a strange kid to be friends with you," the Hero Killer mused.

"He is," Killua confirmed with a small yet fond smile. That was the first genuine emotion Stain had seen on the boy actually.

"But I don't know if I'll ever see him again if I'm stuck here," the boy added with a sad tone, his soft smile faltering.

"Keep your convictions and you will have a much better chance of being successful," the noseless man offered. It was probably supposed to be encouraging in the convoluted way that the Hero Killer viewed the world.

Killua grunted in response and checked his phone for the time before glancing up at Chizome. It was a long shot but...

"You got a phone number?" the pale boy asked.

Stain stared down at the boy incredulously. "If I had a phone my every move could be tracked. That is not a worthwhile risk."

"They make phones without trackers," Killua muttered under his breath, but didn't press the issue since they had arrived at a very shabby looking building that Killua would not have been able to discern as a hospital on his own.

The doctor was a no nonsense kind of guy, but it didn't bother Killua. Apparently he had been kicked out of his position at an esteemed hospital for healing a villain (as protocol requires that doctors heal anyone regardless of their affiliation) but afterwards the villain woke up completely recovered and wrecked havoc within the hospital before escaping. The doctor had been bitter about losing his job and opened his own underground practice that mostly serviced vigilantes, villains, and gangs.

The doctor undid the bandages from the boy's hand and inspected the wound.

"The hell did you do to yourself?" the doctor asked gruffly.

"Grabbed an exposed, live telephone wire," Killua admitted.

"You're insane," the Hero Killer said flatly.

"Touché," the boy replied.

Stain let out a loud laugh. Never had he imagined he'd find someone like this to talk to since he had turned his back on his life as a vigilante. He had burned all his bridges and taken up the lonely path of a self righteous villain, not expecting to ever have another ally or friend again. After all, he was on a path of self destruction; either he would die a villain or live long enough to become a hero in the new world he created. Once that was accomplished, what else did he have to live for? His current lifestyle was a means to an end, and once that end was reached there was nothing left for him in this world. And yet, here was someone else with his own issues to deal with offering him snarky banter and meaningful conversation. It was unbelievable.

The doctor waved one of his large hands over Killua's own and the open wound slowly began to close itself up. The doctor efficiently rebandaged the healing wound and demanded payment. Killua paid with an auspicious amount of bills and the doctor greedily offered his services anytime from now on to the boy.

The two serial killers parted ways outside and Killua grudgingly started to make his way back to the League's bar. He was overdue for an awkward conversation with Tomura and Kurogiri.

 _Just great_ , the boy thought to himself with a groan.

* * *

 **For those of you worried about Bakugou receiving nen and becoming OP, hopefully this chapter indirectly answers some of your questions.**

 **As far as Killua and Kesagiriman's fight, yes Killua should have been able to easily defeat the hero but he was suffering from hubris and didn't take the fight as seriously as he should have until the end.**

 **Also, I'm not condoning children drinking alcohol but hey Kurogiri's a bartender and Killua can easily handle himself.**

 **The Sato family deserves lots of hugs and good business, they're great people.**

 **I had to go back and change a small detail in Chapter 4 when Killua and Midoriya gave their names to each other. I really dug myself into a hole on that one so I went back and took it out. So now they know each others' faces but do not know each other's names. Sorry for the inconsistency.**

 **The Sports Festival is coming up in a couple chapters and let's just say both HxH characters will be in attendance...**

 **Sorry for the long wait for this chapter, but it's been a hectic month. My semester is pretty much over now so I should be able to produce a lot more writing in a shorter period of time for the next few months. As always, leave a review if you enjoyed or if I made a mistake! See you guys next time!**

 **Edit: Changed some little things because I realized that Killua should have been much less effected by his fight. I was trying too hard to keep him from being completely OP that I made him not OP at all.**


End file.
